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i|i!|;i'|''fel( 


ROLLO    IN    HOLLAND, 


BY 


JACOB    ABBOTT 


NEW  YORK: 
SHELDON  &  CO.,  677  BROADWAY, 

AND  214  &  216  MERCER  ST., 
Grand  Central  Horn., 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1858,  by 

JACOB     ABBOTT, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 


CONTENTS. 


OQAPTEB 

PA08 

I.  —  Preparations, 11 

II.  —  A  bad  Travelling  Companion, 

.      26 

III.  —  The  Mail  Steamer, 

44 

IV.  —  Entering  Holland 

67 

V.  —  Walks  about  Hotterdam, 

86 

VI.  —  Doing  the  Hague, 

109 

VII.  —  Correspondence,    . 

138 

VIII.  —  The  Commissioner, 

.     160 

IX.  —  The  Great  Canal, 

169 

X.  —  The  Dairy  Village,     . 

186 

XI.  —  Conclusion,    .        .         . 

200 

ENGRAVINGS. 

Hollo  in  Holland.  —  (Frontispiece.)  pagh 

View  in  Holland, .10 

The  Hansom  Cab, 33 

Landing  prom  the  Mail  Boat, 57 

Dort, 83 

The  Ferry  Boat,         .......  101 

The  Dinner, .  124 

The  Boat  Family, 154 

The  Trekschuyt, 181 

The  Dairy  Village,    ...                           .         .  193 

Cabin  of  Peter  the  Great,        .....  204 

(7) 


PRINCIPAL  PERSONS  OF  THE  STORY. 

Rollo  ;  twelve  years  of  age. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holiday  ;  Rollo's  father  and  mother,  travel- 

ling  in  Europe. 
Thanny  ;  Rollo's  younger  brother. 
Jane  ;  Rollo's  cousin,  adopted  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holiday. 
Mr.  George  ;  a  young  gentleman,  Rollo's  uncle. 


Lfetkiiiili 


ROLLO  IN  HOLLAND. 

Chapter    I. 
Preparations. 

A  description  of  the  peculiarities  of  Holland. 

HOLLAND  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
countries  on  the  globe.  The  peculiarities 
which  make  it  remarkable  arise  from  the  fact  that 
it  is  almost  perfectly  level  throughout,  and  it  lies 
so  low.  A  very  large  portion  of  it,  in  fact,  lies 
below  the  level  of  the  sea,  the  waters  being  kept 
out,  as  every  body  knows,  by  immense  dikes  that 
have  stood  for  ages. 

These  dikes  are  so  immense,  and  they  are  so 
concealed  by  the  houses,  and  trees,  and  mills,  and 
ev^n  villages  that  cover  and  disguise  them,  that 
when  the  traveller  first  sees  them  he  can  hardly 
believe  that  they  are  dikes.  Some  of  them  are 
several  hundred  feet  wide,  and  have  a  good  broad 
public  road  upon  the  top,  with  a  canal  perhaps  by 
the  side  of  it,  and  avenues  of  trees,  and  road-side 

an 


12  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  surface  of  the  country  is  below  the  level  of  the  sea. 

inns,  and  immense  wind  mills  on  the  other  hand. 
When  riding  or  walking  along  upon  such  a  dike 
on  one  side,  down  a  long  slope,  they  have  a 
glimpse  of  water  between  the  trees.  On  the 
other,  at  an  equal  distance  you  see  a  green  ex- 
panse of  country,  with  gardens,  orchards,  fields 
of  corn  and  grain,  and  scattered  farm  houses  ex- 
tending far  and  wide.  At  first  you  do  not  per- 
ceive that  this  beautiful  country  that  you  see 
spreading  in  every  direction  on  one  side  of  the 
road  is  below  the  level  of  the  water  that  you  see 
on  the  other  side  ;  but  on  a  careful  comparison  you 
find  that  it  is  so.  When  the  tide  is  high  the  dif- 
ference is  very  great,  and  were  it  not  for  the 
dikes  the  people  would  be  inundated.* 

Indeed,  the  dikes  alone  would  not  prevent  the 
country  from  being  inundated  ;  for  it  is  not  pos- 
sible to  make  them  perfectly  tight,  and  even  if  it 
were  so,  the  soil  beneath  them  is  more  or  less  per- 
vious to  water,  and  thus  the  water  of  the  sea  and 
of  the  rivers  would  slowly  press  its  way  through 
the  lower  strata,  and  oozing  up  into  the  land  be- 
yond, would  soon  make  it  all  a  swamp. 

Then,  besides  the  interpercolation  from  the  soil, 
there  is  the  rain.  In  upland  countries,  the  surplus 
water  that  falls  in  rain  flows  off  in  brooks  and 

•  See  Frontispiece. 


Preparations.  13 

Why  the  people  of  Holland  use  so  many  wind  mills. 

rivers  to  the  sea  ;  but  in  land  that  is  below  the 
level  of  the  sea,  there  can  be  no  natural  flow  of 
either  brooks  or  rivers.  The  rain  water,  there- 
fore, that  falls  od  this  low  land  would  remain 
there  stagnant,  except  the  comparatively  small 
portion  of  it  that  would  be  evaporated  by  the  sun 
and  wind. 

Thus  you  see,  that  if  the  people  of  Holland 
were  to  rely  on  the  dikes  alone  to  keep  the  land 
dry,  the  country  would  become  in  a  very  short 
time  one  immense  morass. 

To  prevent  this  result  it  is  necessary  to  adopt 
some  plan  to  raise  the  water,  as  fast  as  it  accu- 
mulates in  the  low  grounds,  and  convey  it  away. 
This  is  done  by  pumps  and  other  such  hydraulic 
engines,  and  these  are  worked  in  general  by  wind 
mills. 

They  might  be  worked  by  steam  engines  ;  but 
Bteam  engines  are  much  more  expensive  than  wind 
mills.  It  not  only  costs  much  more  to  make  them, 
but  the  expense  of  working  them  from  day  to  day 
is  very  great,  on  account  of  the  fuel  which  they 
require.  The  necessary  attendance  on  a  steam 
engine,  too,  is  very  expensive.  There  must  be 
engineers,  with  high  pay,  to  watch  the  engine  and 
to  keep  it  always  in  order,  and  firemen  to  feed  the 
fires,  and  ashmen  to  carry  away  the  ashes  and 
cinders.    Whereas  a  wind  mill  takes  care  of  itself. 


14  Rollo   in   Holland. 

Wind  mills  are  peculiarly  adapted  to  draining  purposes. 

The  wind  makes  the  wind  mills  go,  and  the  wind 
costs  nothing.  It  is  true,  that  the  head  of  the 
mill  must  be  changed  from  time  to  time,  so  as  to 
present  the  sails  always  in  proper  direction  to  the 
wind.  But  even  this  is  done  by  the  wind  itself. 
There  is  a  contrivance  by  which  the  mill  is  made 
to  turn  itself  so  as  to  face  always  in  the  right  di- 
rection towards  the  wind  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  the 
mill  is  sometimes  so  constructed  that  if  the  wind 
blows  too  hard,  it  takes  in  a  part  of  the  sails  by 
its  own  spontaneous  action,  and  thus  diminishes 
the  strain  which  might  otherwise  be  injurious  to 
the  machinery. 

Now,  since  the  advantages  of  wind  mills  are  so 
great  over  steam  engines,  in  respect  especially  to 
cheapness,  perhaps  you  will  ask  why  steam  is  em- 
ployed at  all  to  turn  machinery,  instead  of  always 
using  the  wind.  The  reason  is,  because  the  wind 
is  so  unsteady.  Some  days  a  wind  mill  will  work, 
and  some  days  it  will  lie  still ;  and  thus  in  regard 
to  the  time  when  it  will  do  what  is  required  of 
it,  no  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  it.  This  is  of 
very  little  consequence  in  the  work  of  pumping 
up  water  from  the  sunken  country  in  Holland  ; 
for,  if  for  several  days  the  mills  should  not  do 
their  work,  no  great  harm  would  come  of  it, 
since  the  amount  of  water  which  would  accumu- 
late in  that  time  would  not  do  any  harm.     The 


Preparations.  15 

Why  wind  mills  would  not  do  for  manufacturing  purposes. 

ground  might  become  more  wet,  and  the  canals 
and  reservoirs  get  full,  — just  as  brooks  and  riv- 
ers do  on  any  upland  country  after  a  long  rain. 
But  then,  after  the  calm  was  over  and  the  wind 
began  to  blow  again,  the  mills  would  all  go  in- 
dustriously to  work,  and  the  surplus  water  would 
soon  be  pumped  up,  and  discharged  over  the  dikes 
into  the  sea  again. 

Thus  the  irregularity  in  the  action  of  the  wind 
mills  in  doing  such  work  as  this,  is  of  compara- 
tively little  consequence. 

But  in  the  case  of  some  other  kinds  of  work, 
—  as  for  example  the  driving  of  a  cotton  mill,  or 
any  other  great  manufactory  in  which  a  large 
number  of  persons  are  employed,  —  it  would  be  of 
the  greatest  possible  consequence  ;  for  when  a 
calm  time  came,  and  the  wind  mill  would  not 
work,  all  the  hands  would  be  thrown  out  of  em- 
ploy. They  might  sometimes  remain  idle  thus  a 
number  of  days  at  a  time,  at  a  great  expense  to 
their  employers,  or  else  at  a  great  loss  to  them- 
selves. Sometimes,  for  example,  there  might  be 
a  fine  breeze  in  the  morning,  and  all  the  hands 
would  go  to  the  mill  and  begin  their  work.  In 
an  hour  the  breeze  might  entirely  die  away,  and 
the  spinners  and  weavers  would  all  find  their 
jennies  and  looms  going  slower  and  slower,  and 
finally  "stopping  altogether.     And  then   perhaps, 


16  Rollo  in   Holland. 

The  canals  of  Holland.  Engineering. 

two  hours  afterwards,  when  they  had  all  given  up 
the  day's  work  and  gone  away  to  their  respective 
homes,  the  breeze  would  spring  up  again,  and  the 
wind  mill  would  go  to  work  more  industriously 
than  ever. 

This  would  not  answer  at  all  for  a  cotton  mill, 
but  it  does  very  well  for  pumping  up  water  from 
a  great  reservoir  into  which  drains  and  canals 
discharge  themselves  to  keep  a  country  dry. 

And  this  reminds  me  of  one  great  advantage 
which  the  people  of  Holland  enjoy  on  account  of 
the  low  and  level  condition  of  their  country  ;  and 
that  is,  it  is  extremely  easy  to  make  canals  there. 
There  are  not  only  no  mountains  or  rocks  in  the 
way  to  impede  the  digging  of  them,  but,  what 
is  perhaps  a  still  more  important  advantage,  there 
is  no  difficulty  in  filling  them  with  water.  In 
other  countries,  when  a  canal  is  to  be  made,  the 
very  first  question  is,  How  is  it  to  be  filled  ?  For 
this  purpose  the  engineer  explores  the  whole 
country  through  which  the  canal  is  to  pass,  to 
find  rivers  and  streams  that  he  can  turn  into  it, 
when  the  bed  of  it  shall  have  been  excavated ; 
and  sometimes  he  has  to  bring  these  supplies  of 
water  for  a  great  distance  in  artificial  channels, 
which  often  cross  valleys  by  means  of  great  aque- 
ducts built  up  to  hold  them.    Sometimes  a  brook 


Preparation*  3.  17 

The  reason  why  Holland  is  so  full  of  canals. 

13  in  this  way  brought  across  a  river,  —  the  river 
itself  not  being  high  enough  to  feed  the  canal. 

The  people  of  Holland  have  nO  such  difficulties 
as  these  to  encounter  in  their  canals.  The  whole 
country  being  so  nearly  on  a  level  with  the  sea, 
they  have  nothing  to  do,  when  they  wish  for  a 
canal,  but  to  extend  it  in  some  part  to  the  sea 
shore,  and  then  open  a  sluice  way  and  let  the 
water  in. 

It  is  true  that  sometimes  they  have  to  provide 
means  to  prevent  the  ingress  of  too  much  water  ; 
but  this  is  very  easily  done. 

It  is  thus  so  easy  to  make  canals  in  Holland, 
that  the  people  have  been  making  them  for  hun- 
dreds of  years,  until  now  almost  the  whole  coun- 
try is  intersected  every  where  with  canals,  as 
other  countries  are  with  roads.  Almost  all  the 
traffic,  and,  until  lately,  almost  all  the  travel  of 
the  country,  has  been  upon  the  canals.  There  are 
private  canals,  too,  as  well  as  public.  A  farmer 
brings  home  his  hay  and  grain  from  his  fields  by 
water,  and  when  he  buys  a  new  piece  of  land  he 
makes  a  canal  to  it,  as  a  Vermont  farmer  would 
make  a  road  to  a  new  pasture  or  wood  lot  that  ho 
had  been  buying. 

Rollo  wished  very  much  to  see  all  these  things 
—  but  there  was  one  question  which  it  puzzled 
him  very  much  to  decide,  and  that  was  whether 

9 


18  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Rollo  is  perplexed.  Shall  he  visit  Holland  in  summer  or  winter? 

he  would  rather  go  to  Holland  in  the  summer  01 
in  the  winter. 

"  I  am  not  certain,"  said  he  to  his  mother  ono 
day,  "  whether  it  would  not  be  better  for  me  to 
go  in  the  winter." 

"  It  is  very  cold  there  in  the  winter,"  said  his 
mother  ;  "  so  I  am  told." 

"  That  is  the  very  thing,"  said  Rollo.  "  They 
have  such,  excellent  skating  on  the  canals.  I 
want  to  see  the  boats  go  on  the  canals,  and  I  want 
to  see  the  skating,  and  I  don't  know  which  I  want 
to  see  most." 

"  Yes,"  said  his  mother,  "  I  recollect  to  have 
often  seen  pictures  of  skating  on  the  Dutch 
canals." 

"And  I  read,  when  I  was  a  boy,"  continued 
Rollo,  "  that  the  women  skate  to  market  in  Hoi  • 
land." 

Rollo  here  observed  that  his  mother  was  en- 
deavoring to  suppress  a  smile.  She  seemed  to 
try  very  hard,  but  she  could  not  succeed  in  keep- 
ing perfectly  sober. 

"  What  are  you  laughing  at,  mother  ?  "  asked 
Rollo. 

Here  Mrs.  Holiday  could  no  longer  restrain 
herself,  but  laughed  outright. 

"  Is  it  about  the  Dutch  women  skating  to  mar- 
ket?" asked  Rollo. 


Preparations.  19 


Rollers  experience.  Morley's.  The  coffee  room 

"  I  think  they  must  look  quite  funny,  at  any 
rate,"  said  Mrs.  Holiday. 

What  Mrs.  Holiday  was  really  laughing  at  was 
to  hear  Rollo  talk  about  "  when  he  was  a  boy." 
But  the  fact  was,  that  Rollo  had  now  travelled 
about  so  much,  and  taken  care  of  himself  in  so 
many  exigencies,  that  he  began  to  feel  quite  like 
a  man.  And  indeed  I  do  not  think  it  at  all  sur- 
prising that  he  felt  so. 

"  Which  would  you  do,  mother,"  said  Rollo, 
"  if  you  were  I  ?  Would  you  rather  go  in  the 
summer  or  in  the  winter  ?  " 

"  I  would  ask  uncle  George,"  said  Mrs.  Hol- 
iday. 

So  Rollo  went  to  find  his  uncle  George. 

Rollo  was  at  this  time  at  Morley's  Hotel,  in 
London,  and  he  expected  to  find  his  uncle  George 
in  what  is  called  the  coffee  room.  The  coffee 
room  in  Morley's  Hotel  is  a  very  pleasant  place. 
It  fronts  on  one  side  upon  a  very  busy  and  bril- 
liant street,  and  on  another  upon  a  large  open 
square,  adorned  with  monuments  and  fountains. 
On  the  side  towards  the  square  is  a  bay  window, 
and  near  this  bay  window  were  two  or  three 
small  tables,  with  gentlemen  sitting  at  them,  en- 
gaged in  writing.  There  were  other  tables  along 
the  sides  of  the  room  and  at  the  other  windows, 
where  gentlemen  were  taking  breakfast.      Mr. 


20  Rollo   in  Holland. 

Etiquette  of  an  English  coffee  room.  Scenes  from  the  bay  window. 

George  was  at  one  of  the  tables  near  the  bay  win* 
dow,  and  was  busy  writing. 

Rollo  went  to  the  place,  and  standing  by  Mr. 
George's  side,  he  said  in  an  under  tone, — 

"  Uncle  George." 

Every  body  speaks  in  an  under  tone  in  an  Eng- 
lish coffee  room.  They  do  this  in  order  not  to 
interrupt  the  conversation,  or  the  reading,  or  the 
writing  of  other  gentlemen  that  may  be  in  the 
room. 

11  Wait  a  moment,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  till  I 
finish  this  letter." 

So  Rollo  turned  to  the  bay  window  and  looked 
out,  in  order  to  amuse  himself  with  what  he  might 
observe  in  the  street,  till  his  uncle  George  should 
be  ready  to  talk  with  him. 

He  saw  the  fountains  in  the  square,  and  a  great 
many  children  playing  about  the  basins.  He  saw 
a  poor  boy  at  a  crossing  brushing  the  pavement 
industriously  with  an  old  broom,  and  then  hold- 
ing out  his  hand  to  the  people  passing  by,  in  hopes 
that  some  of  them  would  give  him  a  halfpenny. 
He  saw  a  policeman  walking  slowly  up  and  down 
on  the  sidewalk,  wearing  a  glazed  hat,  and  a  uni- 
form of  blue  broadcloth,  with  his  letter  and  num- 
ber embroidered  on  the  collar.  He  saw  an  ele- 
gant carriage  drive  by,  with  a  postilion  riding 
upon  one  of  the  horses  and  two  footmen  in  very 


Preparations.  21 

Rollo's  comparison.  Arguing  the  question. 

splendid  liveries  behind.  There  was  a  lady  in 
the  carriage,  but  she  appeared  old,  and  though 
she  was  splendidly  dressed,  her  face  was  very 
plain. 

"  I  wonder,"  said  Rollo  to  himself,  "  how  much 
she  would  give  of  her  riches  and  finery  if  she 
could  be  as  young  and  as  pretty  as  my  cousin 
Lucy." 

"  Now,  Rollo,"  said  Mr.  George,  interrupting 
Rollo's  reflections,  "  what  is  the  question  ?  " 

"Why,  I  want  to  know,"  said  Rollo,  "whether 
you  think  we  had  better  go  to  Holland  in  the 
winter  or  in  the  summer." 

"  Is  it  left  to  you  to  decide  ? "  asked  Mr. 
George. 

"Why,  no,"  said  Rollo,  "not  exactly.  But 
mother  asked  me  to  consider  which  I  thought  was 
best,  and  so  I  want  to  know  your  opinion." 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "go  on  and 
argue  the  case.  After  I  have  heard  it  argued  I 
will  decide." 

Rollo  then  proceeded  to  explain  to  his  uncle 
the  advantages,  respectively,  of  going  in  the  sum- 
mer and  in  the  winter.  After  hearing  him,  Mr. 
George  thought  it  would  be  decidedly  better  to 
go  in  the  summer. 

"  You  see,"  said  he,  "  that  the  only  advantage 
of  going  in  the  winter  is  to   see   the  skating. 


22  ROLLO    IN    HOLLANP. 

A  goo/I  reason  for  going  in  the  summer.  A  difficulty. 

That  is  very  important,  I  know.  I  should  like 
to  see  the  Dutch  women  skating  to  market  my- 
self, very  much.  But  then,  in  the  winter  you 
could  see  very  little  of  the  canals,  and  the  wind 
mills,  and  all  the  other  hydraulic  operations  of 
the  country.  Every  thing  would  be  frozen  up 
solid." 

"  Father  says  that  he  can't  go  now  very  well," 
continued  Rollo,  "  but  that  I  may  go  with  you  if 
you  would  like  to  go." 

Mr.  George  was  just  in  the  act  of  sealing  his 
letter  as  Rollo  spoke  these  words  ;  but  he  paused 
in  the  operation,  holding  the  stick  of  sealing  wax 
in  one  hand  and  the  letter  in  the  other,  as  if  he 
was  reflecting  on  what  Rollo  had  said. 

"  If  we  only  had  some  one  else  to  go  with  us," 
said  Mr.  George. 

"  Should  not  we  two  be  enough  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  Why,  you  see,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  when  we 
get  into  Holland  we  shall  not  understand  one 
word  of  the  language."" 

"  What  language  do  they  speak  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"Dutch,"  said  Mr.  George,  "and  I  do  not 
know  any  Dutch." 

»  Not  a  word  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George,  "not  a  word.  Ah, 
yes !  I  know  one  word.  I  know  that  dampschiff 
means  steamboat.  Damp,  T  suppose,  means 
stsara." 


Preparations.  23 

How  to  get  along  in  a  strange  country  without  knowing  the  language. 

Then  Rollo  laughed  outright.  Dampskiff,  he 
said,  was  the  funniest  name  for  steamboat  that  he 
ever  heard. 

"  Now,  when  we  don't  know  a  word  of  the  lan- 
guage," added  Mr.  George,  "  we  cannot  have  any 
communication  with  the  people  of  the  country, 
but  shall  be  confined  entirely  to  each  other.  Now, 
do  you  think  that  you  could  get  along  with  hav- 
ing nobody  but  me  to  talk  to  you  for  a  whole 
fortnight?" 

"  Yes,  indeed ! "  said  Rollo.  "  But  then,  uncle 
George,"  he  continued,  "how  are  you  going  to 
get  along  at  the  hotels  without  knowing  how  to 
speak  to  the  people  at  all  ?  " 

"By  signs  and  gestures,"  said  Mr.  George, 
laughing.  "  Could  not  you  make  a  sign  for  some- 
thing to  eat?" 

"  0,  yes,"  said  Rollo  ;  and  he  immediately  began 
to  make  believe  eat,  moving  his  hands  as  if  he 
had  a  knife  and  fork  in  them. 

"  And  what  sign  would  you  make  for  going  to 
bed  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

Here  Rollo  laid  his  head  down  to  one  side,  and 
placed  his  hand  under  it,  as  if  it  were  a  pillow, 
and  then  shut  his  eyes. 

"  That  is  the  sign  for  going  to  bed,"  said  Rollo. 
M  A  deaf  and  dumb  boy  taught  it  to  me." 

"  I  wish  he  had  taught  you  some  more  signs.* 


24  Rollo   in  Holland. 


Advantages  of  a  large  party.  Rollo  suggests  the  Parkraans. 

Baid  Mr.  George.  "  Or  I  wish  we  had  a  deaf  and 
dumb  boy  here  to  go  with  us.  Deaf  and  dumb 
people  can  get  along  excellently  well  where  they 
do  not  understand  the  language,  because  they 
know  how  to  make  so  many  signs." 

"0,  we  can  make  up  the  signs  as  we  go  along," 
said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  I  don't  think  that 
we  shall  have  any  great  difficulty  about  that. 
But  then  it  would  be  pleasanter  to  go  in  a  little 
larger  party.  Two  people  are  apt  to  get  tired 
of  each  other,  when  there- is  nobody  else  that  they 
can  speak  a  single  word  to  for  a  whole  fortnight.  I 
don't  think  that  I  should  get  tired  of  you.  What 
I  am  afraid  of  is,  that  you  would  get  tired  of  me." 

There  was  a  lurking  smile  on  Mr.  George's  face 
as  he  said  this. 

"  0,  uncle  George  !  "  said  Rollo,  "  that  is  only 
your  politeness.  But  then  if  you  really  think 
that  we  ought  to  have  some  more  company,  per- 
haps the  Parkmans  are  going  to  Holland,  and  we 
might  go  with  them." 

"  I  would  not  make  a  journey  with  the  Park- 
mans,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  if  they  would  pay  all 
my  expenses,  and  give  me  five  sovereigns  a  day." 

"  Why,  uncle  George  !  "  exclaimed  Rollo  ;  "  I 
thought  you  liked  Mr.  Parkman  very  much." 

"  So  I  do,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  It  is  his  wifo 
that  I  would  not  go  with." 


Preparations. 


25 


Mr.  George's  reply. 


Who  were  the  Parkmans? 


"0,  uncle  George!"  exclaimed  Rollo  again. 

Hollo  was  very  much  surprised  at  hearing  this 
declaration  ;  and  it  was  very  natural  that  he 
should  be  surprised,  for  Mrs.  Parkman  was  a 
young  and  beautiful  lady,  and  she  was  very  kind- 
hearted  and  very  amiable  in  her  disposition.  Mr. 
Parkman,  too,  was  very  young.  He  had  been 
one  of  Mr.  George's  college  classmates.  He  had 
been  married  only  a  short  time  before  he  left 
America,  and  he  was  now  making  his  bridal  tour. 

Mr.  George  thought  that  Mrs.  Parkman  was 
very  beautiful  and  very  intelligent,  but  he  con- 
sidered her  a  very  uncomfortable  travelling  com- 
panion. I  think  he  judged  her  somewhat  too 
harshly.  But  this  was  one  of  Mr.  George's  faults. 
He  did  not  like  the  ladies  very  much,  and  thq 
faults  which  he  observed  in  them,  from  time  t •: 
time,  he  was  prone  to  condemn  much  too  harsh  Ij 


20  Rollo  in  Holland 


Mrs.  Parkman's  iriconsiderateness.  Instructions  for  travellers. 


Chapter  II. 
A  Bad  Travelling   Companion. 

The  reason  why  Mr.  George  did  not  like  his 
friend  Mr.  Parkman's  young  wife  was  not  be- 
cause of  any  want  of  natural  attractiveness  in 
her  person,  or  of  amiableness  in  her  disposition, 
—  for  she  was  beautiful,  accomplished,  and  kind- 
hearted.  But  for  all  this,  from  a  want  of  con- 
sideration not  uncommon  among  young  ladies 
who  are  not  much  experienced  in  the  world,  she 
was  a  very  uncomfortable  travelling  companion. 

It  is  the  duty  of  a  gentleman  who  has  a  lady 
under  his  charge,  in  making  a  journey,  to  consult 
her  wishes,  and  to  conform  to  them  so  far  as  it  i3 
possible,  in  determining  where  to  go,  and  in  mak- 
ing all  the  general  arrangements  of  the  journey. 
But  when  these  points  are  decided  upon,  every 
thing  in  respect  to  the  practical  carrying  into 
effect  of  the  plans  thus  formed  should  be  left  to 
the  gentleman,  as  the  executive  officer  of  the  par- 
ty ;  just  as  in  respect  to  affairs  relating  to  house- 
keeping, or  any  thing  else  relating  to  a  lady's  de- 


A  Bad  Travelling    Companion.  27 


Impropriety  of  a  lady's  interfering  with  travelling  arrangements. 

partment,  the  lady  should  be  left  free  to  act  ac- 
cording to  her  own  judgment  and  taste  in  ar- 
ranging details,  while  in  the  general  plans  she 
conforms  to  the  wishes  of  her  husband.  For  a 
lady,  when  travelling,  to  be  continually  making 
suggestions  and  proposals  about  the  baggage  or 
the  conveyances,  and  expressing  dissatisfaction, 
or  wish  for  changes  in  this,  that,  or  the  other,  is 
as  much  a  violation  of  propriety  as  it  would  be 
for  the  gentleman  to  go  into  the  kitchen,  and 
there  propose  petty  changes  in  respect  to  the 
mode  of  cooking  the  dinner  —  or  to  stand  by  his 
wife  at  her  work  table,  and  wish  to  have  her 
thread  changed  from  this  place  to  that  —  or  to 
have  some  different  stitch  to  be  used  in  making  a 
seam.  A  lady  very  naturally  feels  disturbed  if 
she  finds  that  her  husband  does  not  have  con- 
fidence enough  in  her  to  trust  her  with  such 
details. 

"  I  will  make  or  mend  for  you  whatever  you 
may  desire,"  she  might  say,  "  and  I  will  get  for 
your  dinner  any  thing  that  you  ask  for  ;  but  in  the 
way  of  doing  it  you  ought  to  leave  every  thing 
to  my  direction.  It  is  better  to  let  me  have  my 
own  way,  even  if  your  way  is  better  than  mine. 
For  in  matters  of  direction  there  ought  always 
to  be  only  one  head,  even  if  it  is  not  a  very  good 


28  Rollo  in  Holland. 

One  bad  general  is  better  than  two  good  ones. 

And  in  the  same  manner  a  gentleman  might 
say  when  travelling  with  a  lady,  — 

"  I  will  arrange  the  journey  to  suit  your  wishes 
as  far  as  is  practicable,  and  will  go  at  such  times 
and  by  such  conveyances  as  you  may  desire.  I 
will  also,  at  all  the  places  where  we  stop,  take 
you  to  visit  such  objects  of  interest  and  curiosity 
as  you  wish  to  see.  But  then  when  it  comes  to 
the  details  of  the  arrangements  to  be  made,  —  the 
orders  to  servants  and  commissioners,  the  deter- 
mination of  the  times  for  setting  out,  and  the  bar- 
gains to  be  made  with  coachmen  and  innkeepers, 
—  it  is  best  to  leave  all  those  things  to  me  ;  for 
it  always  makes  confusion  to  have  two  persons 
give  directions  at  the  same  time." 

To  say  this  would  be  right  in  both  cases,  —  there 
must  always  be  one  to  command.  A  great  many 
families  are  kept  in  continual  confusion  by  there 
being  two  or  more  ladies  who  consider  themselves 
more  or  less  at  the  head  of  it  —  as,  for  instance, 
a  wife  and  a  sister,  or  two  sisters  and  a  mother. 
Napoleon  used  to  say  that  one  bad  general  was 
better  than  two  good  ones  ;  so  important  is  it  in 
war  to  have  unity  of  command.  It  is  not  much 
less  important  in  social  life. 

Mrs.  Parkman  did  not  understand  this  princi- 
ple. Mr.  George  had  seen  an  example  of  her 
mode  of  management  a  day  or  two  before,  in 


A  Bad  Travelling  Companion.  29 

Anecdote  of  Mrs.  Parkman.  Two  ways  to  go  to  the  tunnel. 

taking  a  walk  with  her  and  her  husband  in  Lon* 
don.  They  were  going  to  see  the  tunnel  under 
the  Thames,  which  was  three  or  four  miles  down 
the  river  from  Morley's  Hotel,  where  they  were 
all  lodging. 

"  Which  way  would  you  like  to  go  ?  "  asked 
Mr.  Parkman. 

"Is  there  more  than  one  way?"  asked  his 
wife. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Parkman,  "  we  can  take  a 
Hansom  cab,  and  drive  down  through  the  streets, 
or  we  can  walk  down  to  the  river  side,  and  there 
take  a  boat.  The  boats  are  a  great  deal  the 
cheapest,  and  the  most  amusing  ;  but  the  cab  will 
be  the  most  easy  and  comfortable,  and  the  most 
genteel.  We  shall  have  to  walk  nearly  half  a 
mile  before  we  get  to  the  landing  of  the  boats." 

"  Is  tliere  much  difference  in  the  price?  "  asked 
Mrs.  Parkman. 

"Not  enough  to  be  of  any  consequence,"  re- 
plied her  husband.  "  It  will  make  a  difference 
of  about  one  and  a  half  crown  ;  for  by  the  boats 
it  would  be  only  two  or  three  pence,  while  by  the 
cab  it  will  be  as  many  shillings.  But  that  is  of 
no  consequence.  We  will  go  whichever  way  you 
think  you  would  enjoy  the  most." 

"  You  may  decide  for  me,"  said  Mrs.  Parkman. 
"  I'll  leave  it  entirely  to  you.  It  makes  no  dif 
ference  to  me." 


30  Kollo  in   Holland. 

They  decide  to  take  the  boat.  Mrs.  Parkman's  objection. 

"  Then,  on  the  whole,  I  think  we  will  trj  the 
boat,"  said  Mr.  Parkman  ;  "  it  will  be  so  much 
more  amusing,  and  we  shall  see  so  much  more  of 
London  life.  Besides,  we  shall  often  read  and 
hear  about  the  steamers  on  the  Thames  when  we 
return  to  America,  and  it  will  be  well  for  us  to 
have  made  one  voyage  in  them.  And,  Mr. 
George,  will  you  go  with  us  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George. 

So  they  all  left  the  hotel  together,  and  com- 
menced their  walk  towards  the  bridge  where  the 
nearest  landing  stage  for  the  Thames  boats  lay. 

They  had  not  gone  but  a  very  short  distance 
before  Mrs.  Parkman  began  to  hang  rather  heav- 
ily upon  her  husband's  arm,  and  asked  him  wheth- 
er it  was  much  farther  that  they  would  have  to 
walk. 

"  0,  yes,"  said  Mr.  Parkman.  "  I  told  you 
that  we  should  have  to  walk  about  half  a  mile." 

"  Then  we  shall  get  all  tired  out,"  said  his  wife, 
"  and  we  want  our  strength  for  walking  through 
the  tunnel.  It  does  not  seem  to  be  worth  while 
to  take  all  this  trouble  just  to  save  half  a  crown." 

Mr.  Parkman,  though  he  had  only  been  mar- 
ried a  little  more  than  a  month,  felt  something 
like  a  sense  of  indignation  rising  in  his  breast, 
that  his  wife  should  attribute  to  him  such  a  mo- 
tive for  choosing  the  river  after  what  he  had  said 


A  Bad  Travelling  Companion.  31 

A  change  of  plan.  Mr.  George's  tact.  The  Hansom  cab. 

on  the  subject.  But  he  suppressed  the  feeling, 
and  only  replied  quietly,  — 

"0,  let  us  take  a  cab  then,  by  all  means.  I 
hope  you  don't  suppose  that  I  was  going  to  take 
you  by  the  boat  to  save  any  money." 

"  I  thought  you  said  that  you  would  save  half  a 
crown,"  rejoined  his  wife. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Parkman,  "  I  did,  it  is  true." 

Mr.  Parkman  was  too  proud  to  defend  himself 
from  such  an  imputation,  supported  by  such  rea- 
soning as  this  ;  so  he  only  said,  "  We  will  go  by  a 
cab.     We  will  take  a  cab  at  the  next  stand." 

Mr.  George  instantly  perceived  that  by  this 
change  in  the  plan,  he  was  made  one  too  many 
for  the  party,  since  only  two  can  ride  convenient- 
ly in  a  Hansom  cab.*  So  he  said  at  once,  that 
he  would  adhere  to  the  original  plan,  and  go  by 
water. 

"  But,  first,"  said  he,  "  I  will  go  with  you  to 
the  stand,  and  see  you  safe  in  a  cab." 

So  they  turned  into  another  street,  and  presents 
ly  they  came  to  a  stand.     There  was  a  long  row 

*  A  Hansom  cab  is  made  like  an  old-fashioned  chaise,  only  that 
It  is  set  very  low,  so  that  it  is  extremely  easy  to  step  in  and  out  of 
it,  and  the  seat  of  the  driver  is  high  up  behind.  The  driver  drives 
over  the  top  of  the  chaise  I  Thus  the  view  for  the  passengers  rid- 
ing inside  is  wholly  unobstructed,  and  this  makes  the  Hansom  cab 
x  very  convenient  and  pleasant  vehicle  for  two  persons  to  ride  in. 
through  the  streets  of  a  new  and  strange  town. 


32  Rollo  in   Holland. 

Choosing  a  cab.  Mrs.  Parkman  if  fastidious. 

of  cabs  there,  of  various  kinds,  all  waiting  to  be 
employed.     Among  them  were  several  Hansoms. 

Mr.  Parkman  looked  along  the  line  to  select 
one  that  had  a  good  horse.  The  distance  was 
considerable  that  they  had  to  go,  and  besides  Mr. 
Parkman  knew  that  his  wife  liked  always  to  go 
fast.  So  when  he  had  selected  the  best  looking 
horse,  he  made  a  signal  to  the  driver.  The  driver 
immediately  left  the  stand,  and  drove  over  to  the 
sidewalk  where  Mr.  Parkman  and  his  party  were 
waiting. 

Mr.  Parkman  immediately  opened  the  door  of 
the  cab  to  allow  his  wife  to  go  in  ;  but  she,  in- 
stead of  entering,  began  to  look  scrutinizingly 
into  it,  and  hung  back. 

"  Is  this  a  nice  cab  ?  "  said  she.  "  It  seems  to 
me  that  I  have  seen  nicer  cabs  than  this. 

"  Let  us  look,"  she  added,  "  and  see  if  there  is 
not  a  better  one  somewhere  along  the  line." 

The  cabman,  looking  down  from  his  exalted 
seat  behind  the  vehicle,  said  that  there  was  not  a 
nicer  cab  than  his  in  London. 

"0,  of  course,"  said  Mrs.  Parkman.  "They 
always  say  that.  But  I  can  find  a  nicer  one,  I'm 
sure,  somewhere  in  the  line." 

So  saying  she  began  to  move  on.  Mr.  Park- 
man  gave  the  cabman  a  silver  sixpence  —  which 
is  equal  to  a  New  York  shilling  —  to  compensate 


THE    HANSOM    CAB. 


A  Bad  Travelling  Companion.  35 

Mr.  George  is  very  much  rejoiced  to  escape. 


him  for  having  been  called  off  from  his  station, 
and  then  followed  his  wife  across  the  street  to 
the  side  where  the  cabs  were  standing.  Mrs. 
Parkman  led  the  way  all  down  the  line,  examin- 
ing each  hack  as  she  passed  it ;  but  she  did  not 
find  any  one  that  looked  as  well  as  the  first. 

"  After  all/'  said  sue,  **  we  might  as  well  go 
back  and  take  the  first  one."  So  she  turned  and 
began  to  retrace  her  steps  —  the  two  gentlemen 
accompanying  her.  But  when  they  got  back  they 
found  that  the  one  which  Mr.  Parkman  had  first 
selected  was  gone.  It  had  been  taken  by  another 
customer. 

Mr.  George  was  now  entirely  out  of  patience  ; 
but  he  controlled  himself  sufficiently  to  suppress 
all  outward  manifestation  of  it,  only  saying  that 
he  believed  he  would  not  wait  any  longer. 

"  I  will  go  down  to  the  river,"  said  he,  "  and 
take  a  boat,  and  when  you  get  a  carriage  you 
can  go  by  land.  I  will  wait  for  you  at  the  en- 
trance to  the  tunnel." 

So  he  went  away  ;  and  as  soon  as  he  turned 
the  corner  of  the  street  he  snapped  his  fingers 
and  nodded  his  head  with  the  air  of  a  man  who 
has  just  made  a  very  lucky  escape. 

"  I  thank  my  stars,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  tha  t 
I  have  not  got  such  a  lady  as  that  to  take  care 
of.     Handsome  as  she  is,  I  would  not  have  her 


86  Rollo  in  Holland 


The  various  routes  from  London  to  Holland. 

for  a  travelling  companion  on  any  account  what- 
ever." 

It  was  from  having  witnessed  several  such  ex- 
hibitions of  character  as  this  that  Mr.  George 
had  expressed  himself  so  strongly  to  Rollo  on  the 
subject  of  joining  Mr.  Parkman  and  his  wife  in 
making  the  tour  of  Holland. 

But  notwithstanding  Mr.  George's  determina- 
tion that  he  would  not  travel  in  company  with 
such  a  lady,  it  seemed  to  be  decreed  that  he 
should  do  so,  for  he  left  London  about  a  week 
after  this  to  go  to  Holland  with  Rollo  alone  ;  and 
though  he  postponed  setting  out  for  several  days, 
so  as  to  allow  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman  time  to  get 
well  under  way  before  them,  he  happened  to  fall 
in  with  them  several  times  in  the  course  of  the 
journey.  The  first  time  that  he  met  with  them 
was  in  crossing  the  Straits  of  Dover. 

There  are  several  ways  by  which  a  person  may 
go  to  Holland  from  London.  The  cheapest  is  to 
take  a  steamer,  by  which  means  you  go  down  the 
Thames,  and  thence  pass  directly  across  the  Ger- 
man Ocean  to  the  coast  of  Holland.  But  that 
makes  quite  a  little  voyage  by  sea,  during  which 
almost  all  persons  are  subject  to  a  very  disagree- 
able kind  of  sickness,  on  account  of  the  small 
size  of  the  steamers,  and  the  short  tossing  motion 
of  the  sea  that  almost  always  prevails  in  the  wa- 
ters that  lie  around  Great  Britain. 


A  Bad  Travelling  Companion.  37 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  meet  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman  at  Dover. 

So  Mr.  George  and  Rollo,  who  neither  of  them 
liked  to  be  seasick,  determined  to  go  another 
way.  They  concluded  to  go  down  by  railway  to 
Dover,  and  then  to  go  to  Calais  across  the  strait, 
where  the  passage  is  the  shortest.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Parkman  had  set  off  several  days  before  them, 
and  Mr.  George  supposed  that  by  this  time  they 
were  far  on  their  way  towards  Holland.  But 
they  had  been  delayed  by  Mrs.  Parkman's  desire 
to  go  to  Brighton,  which  is  a  great  watering 
place  on  the  coast,  not  far  from  Dover.  There 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman  had  spent  several  days, 
and  it  so  happened  that  in  going  from  Brighton 
to  Dover  they  met,  at  the  junction,  the  train  that 
was  bringing  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  down  from 
I'Ondon  ;  and  thus,  though  both  parties  were  un- 
conscious of  the  fact,  they  were  travelling  along 
towards  Dover,  after  leaving  the  junction,  in  the 
same  train,  and  when  they  stepped  out  of  the  car- 
riages, upon  the  Dover  platform,  there  they  were 
all  together. 

Mr.  Parkman  and  Mr.  George  were  very  glad 
to  see  each  other  ;  and  while  they  were  shaking 
hands  with  each  other,  and  making  mutual  expla- 
nations, Mrs.  Parkman  went  to  the  door  of  the 
Btation  to  see  what  sort  of  a  place  Dover  was. 

She  saw  some  long  piers  extending  out  into  the 
water,  and  a  great  many  ships  and  steamers  lying 


38  Rollo   in   Holland. 

The  scene  at  Dover.  Mrs.  Parkman's  resolve. 

near  them.  The  town  lay  along  the  shore,  sur« 
rounding  an  inner  harbor  enclosed  by  the  walla 
of  the  piers.  Behind  the  town  were  high  cliffs, 
and  an  elevated  plain  above,  on  which  a  great 
number  of  tents  were  pitched.  It  was  the  en- 
campment of  an  army.  A  little  way  along  the 
shore  a  vast  promontory  was  seen,  crowned  by  an 
ancient  and  venerable  looking  castle,  and  termi- 
nated by  a  range  of  lofty  and  perpendicular  cliffa 
of  chalk  towards  the  sea. 

"  What  a  romantic  place  !  "  said  Mrs.  Parkman 
to  herself.  "  It  is  just  such  a  place  as  I  like. 
Ill  make  William  stay  here  to-day." 

Just  then  she  heard  her  husband's  voice  calling 
to  her. 

"  Louise ! " 

She  turned  and  saw  her  husband  beckoning  to 
her.  He  was  standing  with  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  near  the  luggage  van,  as  they  call  it  in 
England,  while  the  railway  porters  were  taking 
out  the  luggage. 

Mrs.  Parkman  walked  towards  the  place. 

"  They  say,  Louise,"  said  Mr.  Parkman,  "  that 
it  is  time  for  us  to  go  on  board  the  boat.  She  is 
going  to  sail  immediately." 

"  Ah  !  but,  William,"  said  Mrs.  Parkman,  "  lei 
us  stay  here  a  little  while.  Dover  is  such  a  ro- 
mantic looking  place." 


A  Bad  Travelling  Companion.  39 

The  porter  recommends  the  tidal  boat  in  preference  to  the  mail  boat. 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  Parkman,  "we  will 
Btay  if  you  like.  Are  you  going  to  stay,  Mr. 
George  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "  Rollo  and  I  were 
going  to  stay  till  tins  afternoon.  There  is  a  boat 
to  cross  at  four  o'clock." 

It  was  about  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning 
when  this  conversation  occurred.  The  porter 
stood  by  all  the  time  with  Mr.  Parkman's  two 
trunks  in  his  charge,  waiting  to  have  it  decided 
when  they  were  to  go. 

"  I  should  think,  sir,"  said  the  porter,  "  that 
as  you  have  a  lady  with  you,  you  would  find  this 
boat  better.  This  is  a  tidal  steamer,  but  the  four 
o'clock  is  the  mail  boat,  and  it  will  be  pretty 
rough  this  afternoon.  There  is  a  breeze  coming 
up." 

"  0,  never  mind  the  breeze,"  said  Mrs.  Park- 
man.  "  We  are  used  to  it,  porter.  We've  crossed 
the  Atlantic." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  Parkman,  "  we- will  wait 
until  four  o'clock." 

"Then  I'll  put  the  luggage  in  the  luggage 
room,"  said  the  porter,  "  and  take  it  to  the  boat 
at  half  past  three.  That's  the  way  to  the  hotel," 
ne  added,  pointing  the  way. 

There  are  several  very  nice  hotels  in  Dover,  but 
the  one  which  the  porter  referred  to  is  one  of  the 


40  Rollo   in   Holland. 

A  description  of  the  hotel.  The  coffee  room. 

finest  and  most  beautifully  situated  hotels  in  Eu- 
rope. It  is  a  large  and  handsome  edifice,  built 
in  modern  style,  and  it  stands  close  to  the  rail- 
road station,  on  a  point  of  land  overlooking  the 
sea.  The  coffee  room,  which,  unlike  other  Eng- 
lish coffee  rooms,  is  used  by  both  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen, is  a  very  spacious  and  splendidly  decorat- 
ed apartment,  with  large  windows  on  three  sides 
of  it,  overlooking  the  sea  and  the  neighboring 
coasts.  Each  sash  of  these  windows  is  glazed 
with  one  single  pane  of  plate  glass,  so  that  whether 
they  are  shut  or  open  there  is  nothing  to  intercept 
the  view.  The  room  is  furnished  with  a  great 
number  of  tables,  each  large  enough  to  accommo- 
date parties  of  four  or  six,  and  all,  except  two  or 
three  in  different  parts  of  the  room  that  are  re- 
served for  reading  and  writing,  are  covered  with 
neat  white  table  cloths,  and  other  preparations 
more  or  less  advanced  for  breakfasts  or  dinners 
that  may  have  been  ordered,  while  at  almost  all 
times  of  the  day,  a  greater  or  less  number  of 
them  are  occupied  by  parties  of  tourists,  their 
bags  and  baskets  lying  on  the  neighboring  chairs. 

It  was  into  this  room,  so  occupied,  that  our 
travellers  were  ushered  as  they  walked  from  the 
station  into  the  hotel. 

Mrs.  Parkman  walked  forward,  and  took  her 
seat  near  a  window.  The  gentlemen  attended 
her. 


A  Bad  Travelling  Companion.  41 

The  magnificent  view.  Ordering  breakfast. 

"  What  a  magnificent  view  !  "  said  she. 

The  view  was  indeed  magnificent.  Across  the 
water  was  to  be  seen  the  coast  of  France,  lying 
like  a  low  cloud  close  to  the  horizon.  Ships,  and 
steamers,  and  fish  boats,  and  every  other  sort  of 
craft  were  seen  plying  to  and  fro  over  the  water, 
—  some  going  out,  others  coming  in.  Through 
one  of  the  windows  in  the  end  of  the  room,  Mrs. 
Parkman  could  see  the  castle  crowning  its  bold 
and  lofty  promontory,  and  the  perpendicular  cliffs 
of  chalk,  with  the  sea  beating  against  the  base 
of  them  below.  Through  the  opposite  window, 
which  of  course  was  at  the  other  end  of  the  room, 
the  view  extended  down  the  coast  for  a  great  dis- 
tance, showing  point  after  point,  and  headland 
after  headland,  in  dim  perspective  —  with  a  long 
line  of  surf  rolling  incessantly  upon  the  beach, 
which  seemed,  in  that  direction,  interminable. 

After  looking  for  some  time  at  the  view  from 
the  windows,  Mrs.  Parkman  turned  to  observe 
the  company  in  the  room,  and  to  watch  the  sev- 
eral parties  of  new  comers  as  they  successively 
entered.  She  wished  to  see  if  there  were  any 
young  brides  among  them.  While  she  was  thus 
engaged,  her  husband  selected  a  table  that  was 
vacant,  and  ordered  breakfast.  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  did  the  same  at  another  table  near. 

While  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  were  at  the  table 


42  Rollo  in  Holland 


Difference  between  the  tidal  boat  and  the  mail  boat. 

drinking  their  coffee,  Mr.  George  asked  Rollo 
what  he  supposed  the  porter  meant  by  saying  that 
the  eleven  o'clock  boat  was  a  tidal  boat. 

"  I  know,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  read  it  in  the  guide 
book.  The  tidal  steamers  go  at  high  tide,  or 
nearly  high  tide,  and  if  you  go  in  them  you  em- 
bark from  the  pier  on  one  side,  and  you  land  at 
the  pier  on  the  other.  But  the  mail  steamers  go 
at  a  regular  hour  every  day,  and  then  when  it 
happens  to  be  low  tide,  they  cannot  get  to  the 
pier,  and  the  passengers  have  to  land  in  small 
boats.  That  is  what  the  porter  meant  when  he 
said  that  it  would  not  be  pleasant  for  a  lady  to 
go  in  the  mail  steamer.  It  is  very  unpleasant  for 
ladies  to  be  landed  in  small  boats  when  the 
weather  is  rough." 

"  I  don't  believe  that  Mrs.  Parkman  understood 
it,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Nor  I  either,"  said  Rollo. 

"I  presume  she  thought,"  added  Mr.  George, 
"  that  when  the  porter  spoke  about  the  rough  sea, 
he  only  referred  to  the  motion  of  the  steamer  in 
going  over." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  but  what  he  really  meant 
was,  that  it  would  be  bad  for  her  to  get  down 
from  the  steamer  into  the  small  boat  at  the  land- 
ing. I  am  afraid  that  she  will  not  like  it,  though 
I  think  that  it  will  be  real  good  fun." 


A  Bad  Travelling  Companion.  43 

Rollo  prefers  the  mail  boat. 

"  Very  likely  it  will  be  fun  for  you,"  said  Mr. 
George. 

"  I  would  a  great  deal  rather  go  across  in  a 
mail  steamer  at  low  tide  than  in  any  other  way," 
said  Rollo. 


44  Rollo  in  Holland. 


The  northern  coast  of  France  has  few  good  harbors. 


Chapter  III. 

The   Mail   Steamer. 

Hollo's  explanation  in  respect  to  the  mail 
steamer  was  correct.  As  has  before  been  stated 
in  some  one  or  other  of  the  volumes  of  this  series, 
the  northern  coast  of  France  is  low,  and  the  shore 
is  shelving  for  almost  the  whole  extent  of  it,  and 
there  are  scarcely  any  good  harbors.  Immense 
sandy  beaches  extend  along  the  coast,  sloping  so 
gradually  outward,  that  when  the  tide  goes  down 
the  sands  are  left  bare  for  miles  and  miles  to- 
wards the  sea.  The  only  way  by  which  harbors 
can  be  made  on  such  a  shore  is  to  find  some  place 
where  a  creek  or  small  river  flows  into  the  sea, 
and  then  walling  in  the  channel  at  the  mouth 
of  the  creek,  so  as  to  prevent  it  being  choked  up 
by  sand.  In  this  way  a  passage  is  secured,  by 
which,  when  the  tide  is  high,  pretty  good  sized 
vessels  can  get  in  ;  but,  after  all  that  they  can  do 
in  such  a  case,  they  cannot  make  a  harbor  which 
can  be  entered  at  low  tide.  When  the  tide  is  out. 
nothing  is  left  between  the  two  piers,  which  form 


The  Mail  Steamer.  45 

The  harbor  of  California.  The  party  embark  from  Dover. 

the  borders  of  the  channel,  but  muddy  flats,  with 
a  small,  sluggish  stream,  scarcely  deep  enough  to 
float  a  jolly  boat,  slowly  meandering  in  the  midst 
of  them  towards  the  sea. 

The  harbor  of  California  is  such  a  harbor  as 
this.  Accordingly,  in  case  a  steamer  arrives  there 
when  the  tide  is  down,  there  is  no  other  way  but 
for  her  to  anchor  in  the  offing  until  it  rises  again  ; 
and  the  passengers,  if  they  wish  to  go  ashore, 
must  clamber  down  the  side  of  the  vessel  into  a 
small  boat,  and  be  pulled  ashore  by  the  oarsmen. 
In  smooth  weather  this  is  very  easily  done.  But 
in  rough  weather,  when  both  steamer  and  boat 
are  pitching  and  tossing  violently  up  and  down 
upon  the  waves,  it  is  not  very  easy  or  agreeable, 
especially  for  timid  ladies. 

After  finishing  their  breakfast,  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  went  out,  and  they  rambled  about  the  town 
until  the  time  drew  near  for  the  sailing  of  the 
boat.  Then  they  went  to  the  station  for  the  lug- 
gage, and  having  engaged  a  porter  to  take  it  to 
the  boat,  they  followed  him  down  to  the  pier  till 
they  came  to  the  place  where  the  boat  was  lying. 
After  seeing  the  trunk  put  on  board  they  went  on 
board  themselves.  A  short  time  afterwards  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Parkman  came. 

The  steamer,  like  all  the  others  which  ply  be- 
tween  the  coasts  of  France  and   England,  was 


46  Rollo   in  Holland. 

The  scene  upon  the  deck  of  the  steamer. 

quite  small,  and  the  passengers  were  very  few. 
There  were  only  four  or  five  ladies,  and  not  far 
from  the  same  number  of  gentlemen.  As  the 
passage  was  only  expected  to  occupy  about  two 
hours,  the  passengers  did  not  go  below,  but  ar- 
ranged themselves  on  seats  upon  the  deck  —  some 
along  the  sides  of  the  deck  by  the  bulwarks,  and 
some  near  the  centre,  around  a  sort  of  house  built 
over  the  passage  way  which  led  down  into  the 
cabin. 

Soon  after  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman  came  on 
board,  Mr.  Parkman  said  to  his  wife, — 

"  Now,  Louise,  my  dear,  you  will  be  less  likely 
to  be  sick  if  you  get  some  good  place  where  you 
can  take  a  reclining  posture,  and  so  remain  pretty 
still  until  we  get  over." 

"  0, 1  shall  not  be  sick,"  said  she.  "  I  am  not 
at  all  afraid." 

So  she  began  walking  about  the  deck  with  an 
unconcerned  and  careless  air,  as  if  she  had  been 
an  old  sailor.     ' 

Pretty  soon  Mr.  George  saw  two  other  ladies 
coming,  with  their  husbands,  over  the  plank. 
The  countenances  of  these  ladies  were  very 
pleasing,  and  there  was  a  quiet  gentleness  in 
their  air  and  manner  which  impressed  Mr. 
George  very  strongly  in  their  favor. 

A?  soon  as  they  reached  the  deck,  and  while 


The  Mail   Steamer.  47 


Good  travellers.  Mr.  Parkman's  troubled. 

their  husbands  were  attending  to  the  disposal  of 
the  luggage,  they  began  to  look  for  seats. 

"  We  will  get  into  the  most  comfortable  po- 
sition we  can,"  said  one  of  them,  "and  keep  still 
(ill  we  get  nearly  across." 

"Yes,"    said   the   other,    "that  will  be   the 


So  they  chose  good  seats  near  the  companion 
way,  and  sat  down  there,  and  their  husbands 
brought  them  carpet  bags  to  put  their  feet  upon. 

In  about  fifteen  minutes  after  this  the  steamer 
put  off  from  the  pier,  and  commenced  her  voy- 
age. She  very  soon  began  to  rise  and  fall  over 
the  waves,  with  a  short,  uneasy  motion,  which  was 
very  disagreeable.  The  passengers,  however,  all 
remained  still  in  the  places  which  they  had  sev- 
erally chosen, —  some  reading,  others  lying  quiet 
with  their  eyes  closed,  as  if  they  were  trying  to 
go  to  sleep. 

Mr.  Parkman  himself  tried  to  do  this,  but  his 
wife  would  not  leave  him  in  peace.  She  came 
to  him  continually  to  inquire  about  this  or  that, 
or  to  ask  him  to  look  at  some  vessel  that  was 
coming  in  sight,  or  at  some  view  on  the  shore. 
All  this  time  the  wind,  and  the  consequent  motion 
of  the  steamer,  increased.  Scudding  clouds  were 
seen  flitting  across  the  sky,  from  which  there  de- 
scended now  and  then  misty  showers  of  rain. 


48  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Bad  weather.  Seasickness.  Tho  lighthouse  in  view. 

These  clouds  gradually  became  more  frequent 
and  more  dense,  until  at  length  the  whole  eastern 
sky  was  involved  in  one  dense  mass  of  threaten- 
ing vapor. 

It  began  to  grow  dark,  too.  The  specified 
time  for  sailing  was  four  o'clock  ;  but  there  was  a 
delay  for  the  mails,  and  it  was  full  half  past  four 
before  the  steamer  had  left  the  pier.  And  now, 
before  she  began  to  draw  near  the  French  coast, 
it  was  nearly  half  past  six.  At  length  the  coast 
began  slowly  to  appear.  Its  outline  was  dimly 
discerned  among  the  misty  clouds. 

Long  before  this  time,  however,  Mrs.  Parkman 
had  become  quite  sick.  She  first  began  to  feel 
dizzy,  and  then  she  turned  pale,  and  finally  she 
came  and  sat  down  by  her  husband,  and  leaned 
her  head  upon  his  shoulder. 

She  had  been  sitting  in  this  posture  for  nearly 
half  an  hour,  when  at  length  she  seemed  to  feel 
better,  and  she  raised  her  head  again. 

"  Are  we  not  nearly  there  ?  "  said  she. 

"Yes,"  said  her  husband.  " The  lighthouse  is 
right  ahead,  and  the  ends  of  the  piers.  In  ten 
minutes  more  we  shall  be  going  in  between  them, 
and  then  all  the  trouble  will  be  over." 

Rollo  and  Mr.  George  were  at  this  time  near 
the  bows.  They  had  gone  there  to  look  forward, 
in  order  to  get  as  early  a  glimpse  as  possible  of 


The   Mail   Steamer.  49 

The  boats  are  discerned  through  the  darkness. 

the  boats  that  they  knew  were  to  be  expected  to 
come  out  from  the  pier  as  soon  as  the  steamer 
should  draw  nigh. 

"  Here  they  come  !  "  said  Rollo,  at  length. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.     "I  see  them." 

It  was  so  nearly  dark  that  the  boats  could  not 
be  seen  distinctly.  Indeed  there  was  not  much 
to  be  discerned  but  a  black  moving  mass,  slowly 
coming  out  from  under  the  walls  of  the  pier. 

The  steamer  had  now  nearly  reached  the 
ground  where  she  was  to  anchor,  and  so  the  sea- 
men on  the  forecastle  took  in  the  foresail,  which 
had  been  spread  during  the  voyage,  and  the 
helmsman  put  down  the  helm.  The  head  of  the 
steamer  then  slowly  came  round  till  it  pointed  in 
a  direction  parallel  to  the  shore.  This  carried 
the  boats  and  the  pier  somewhat  out  of  view 
from  the  place  where  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had 
been  standing. 

"  Now  we  can  see  them  better  aft,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  and  they  will  board 
us  aft  too  ;  so  we  had  better  be  there  ready." 

Accordingly  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  went  aft 
again,  and  approached  the  gangway  on  the  side 
where  they  supposed  the  boats  would  come. 

In  going  there  they  passed  round  first  on  the 
other  side  of  the  entrance  to  the  cabin,  where  the 
two  ladies  were  sitting  that  have  already  been 


50  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  surprise  of  the  strange  gentleman. 

described.  As  they  went  by  one  of  the  gentle- 
men came  to  them  and  said,  — 

"  Keep  up  your  courage  a  few  minutes  longer. 
We  are  very  near  the  pier.  In  ten  minutes  we 
shall  be  in  smooth  water,  and  all  will  be  over." 

The  ladies  seemed  much  relieved  and  rejoiced 
to  hear  this,  and  then  the  gentleman  went  with 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  towards  the  gangway,  in 
order  that  they  might  make  further  observations. 
He  was  joined  there  a  moment  afterwards  by  his 
companion.  Now,  these  gentlemen,  as  it  hap- 
pened, knew  nothing  about  the  plan  of  landing  in 
boats.  They  had  made  no  particular  inquiry  at 
Dover  in  respect  to  the  steamer  that  they  had 
come  in,  but  took  it  for  granted  that  she  would 
go  into  the  harbor  as  usual,  and  land  the  passen- 
gers at  the  pier.  Their  attention  had  just  been 
attracted  to  the  singular  movement  of  the  steam- 
er, when  Rollo  and  Mr.  George  came  up. 

"  What !  "  said  one  of  them,  speaking  with  a 
tone  of  surprise,  and  looking  about  eagerly  over 
the  water.  "  We  are  coming  to,  Mr.  Waldo. 
What  can  that  mean  ?  " 

Just  then  the  little  fleet  of  boats,  six  or  seven 
in  number,  began  to  come  into  view  from  where 
the  gentlemen  stood.  They  were  dimly  seen  at 
a  distance,  and  looked  like  long,  black  animals, 
slowly  advancing  over  the  dark  surface  of  the 
water,  and  struggling  fearfully  with  the  waves. 


The  Mail  Steamer.  5] 

The  boats  approaching.  A  dismal  prospect. 

"What  boats  can  those  be  ?  "  said  Mr.  Waldo, 
beginning  to  look  a  little  alarmed. 

He  was  alarmed  not  for  himself,  but  for  hia 
wife,  who  was  very  frail  and  delicate  in  health, 
and  ill  fitted  to  bear  any  unusual  exposure. 

"  I  am  sure  I  cannot  imagine,"  replied  the 
other. 

"  It  looks  marvellously  as  if  they  were  coming 
out  for  us,"  said  Mr.  Waldo. 

"  Can  it  be  possible,  Mr.  Albert,  that  we  are 
to  land  in  boats  such  a  night  as  this?"  con- 
tinued he. 

"  It  looks  like  it,"  replied  the  other.  "  Yes, 
they  are  really  coming  here." 

The  boats  were  now  seen  evidently  advancing 
towards  the  steamer.  They  came  on  in  a  line, 
struggling  fearfully  with  the  waves. 

"  They  look  like  spectres  of  boats,"  said  Mr. 
George  to  Rollo. 

Mr.  Albert  now  went  round  to  the  other  side 
of  the  companion  way,  to  the  place  where  the 
two  ladies  were  sitting. 

"  Ladies,"  said  he,  "  I  am  very  sorry  to  say 
that  we  shall  be  obliged  to  land  in  boats." 

"  In  boats  !  "  said  the  ladies,  surprised. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Albert,  "  the  tide  is  out,  and 
I  suppose  we  cannot  go  into  port.  The  steamer 
has  come  to,  and  the  boats  are  coming  along- 
Sid*." 


52  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Calmness  of  the  ladies.  The  mail  bags  aont  ashore. 

The  ladies  looked  out  over  the  dark  and 
Btormy  water  with  an  emotion  of  fear,  but  they 
did  not  say  a  word. 

"  There  is  no  help  for  it,"  continued  the  gen- 
tleman ;  "  and  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  re- 
sign yourselves  passively  to  whatever  comes.  If 
we  had  known  that  this  steamer  would  not  go 
into  port,  we  would  not  have  come  in  her  ;  but 
now  that  we  are  here  we  must  go  through." 

M  Very  well,"  said  the  ladies.  "  Let  us  know 
when  the  boat  for  us  is  ready." 

Mr.  Albert  then  returned  to  the  gangway, 
where  Rollo  and  Mr.  George  were  standing. 
The  foremost  boat  had  come  alongside,  and  the 
seamen  were  throwing  the  mail  bags  into  it. 
When  the  mails  were  all  safely  stowed  in  the 
boat,  some  of  the  passengers  that  stood  near  by 
were  called  upon  to  follow.  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo,  being  near,  were  among  those  thus  called 
upon. 

"  Wait  a  moment,"  said  Mr.  George  to  Rollo, 
in  a  low  tone.  "  Let  a  few  of  the  others  go  first, 
that  we  may  see  how  they  manage  it." 

It  proved  to  be  rather  difficult  to  manage  it ; 
for  both  the  steamer  and  the  boat  were  rocking 
and  tossing  violently  on  the  waves,  and  as  their 
respective  motions  did  not  at  all  correspond,  they 
thumped  against  each  other  continually,  as  the 


The   Mail   Steamer.  53 

The  appalling  piospect.  How  the  passengers  got  into  the  hoat. 

boat  rose  and  fell  up  and  down  the  side  of  tho 
steamer  in  a  fearful  manner.  It  was  dark  too, 
and  the  wind  was  blowing  fresh,  which  added  to 
the  frightfulness  of  the  scene. 

A  crowd  of  people  stood  about  the  gangway. 
Some  of  these  people  were  passengers  waiting  to 
go  down,  and  others,  officers  of  the  ship,  to  help 
them.  The  seamen  in  the  boat  below  were  all 
on  the  alert  too,  some  employed  in  keeping  the 
boat  off  from  the  side  of  the  ship,  in  order  to 
prevent  her  being  stove  or  swamped,  while  others 
stood  on  each  side  of  the  place  where  the  pas- 
sengers were  to  descend,  with  uplifted  arms, 
ready  to  seize  and  hold  them  when  they  came 
down. 

There  was  a  little  flight  of  steps  hanging  down 
the  side  of  the  steamer,  with  ropes  on  each  side 
of  it  in  lieu  of  a  balustrade.  The  passenger 
who  was  to  embark  was  directed  to  turn  round 
and  begin  to  go  down  these  steps  backward,  and 
then,  when  the  sea  lifted  the  boat  so  that  the  sea- 
men on  board  could  seize  hold  of  him,  they  all 
cried  out  vociferously,  "  Let  go  ! "  and  at  the 
,?ame  moment  a  strong  sailor  grasped  him  around 
the  waist,  brought  him  down  into  the  bottom  of 
the  boat  in  a  very  safe,  though  extremely  un- 
seremonious  manner. 

After  several  gentlemen  and  one  lady  had  thufl 


54  Rollo  in   Holland. 

The  boatmen  carry  off  Mr.  George  and  leave  Rollo  behind. 

been  put  into  the  boat,  amid  a  great  deal  of  call- 
ing and  shouting,  and  many  exclamations  of  sur- 
prise and  terror,  the  officer  at  the  gangway  turned 
to  Mr.  George,  saying, — 

"  Come,  sir  !  " 

There  was  no  time  to  stop  to  talk ;  so  Mr. 
George  stepped  forward,  saying  to  Rollo  as  he 
went,  "  Come  right  on  directly  after  me  ; "  and  in 
a  moment  more  he  was  seized  by  the  man,  and 
whirled  down  into  the  boat,  he  scarcely  knew 
how.  Immediately  after  he  was  in,  there  came 
some  unusually  heavy  seas,  and  the  steamer  and 
the  boat  thumped  together  so  violently  that  all 
the  efforts  of  the  seamen  seemed  to  be  required 
to  keep  them  apart. 

11  Push  off !  "  said  the  officer. 

"  Here,  stop !  I  want  to  go  first/'  exclaimed 
Rollo. 

"  No  more  in  this  boat,"  said  the  officer.  "  Push 
off!" 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Rollo,  calling  out  to  Mr. 
George,  "  I'll  come  by  and  by." 

"  All  right,"  said  Mr.  George. 

By  this  time  the  boat  had  got  clear  of  the 
steamer,  and  she  now  began  to  move  slowly  on- 
ward, rising  and  falling  on  the  waves,  and  strug- 
gling violently  to  make  her  way. 

"  I  am  glad  they  did  not  let  me  go,"  said  Rol- 


The  Mail  Steamer.  55 

Mrs.  Parkman  makes  remonstrances.  Her  husband's  explanations. 

io.  "  I  would  rather  stay  and  see  the  rest  go 
first." 

Another  boat  was  now  seen  approaching,  and 
Rollo  stepped  back  a  little  to  make  way  for  the 
people  that  were  to  go  in  it,  when  he  heard  Mrs. 
Parkman's  voice,  in  tones  of  great  anxiety  and 
terror,  saying  to  her  husband,  — 

"  I  cannot  go  ashore  in  a  boat  in  that  way, 
William.     I  cannot  possibly,  and  I  will  not !  " 

"  Why,  Louise,"  said  her  husband,  "  what  else 
can  we  do  ?  " 

"  I'll  wait  till  the  steamer  goes  into  port,  if  I 
have  to  wait  till  midnight,"  replied  Mrs.  Park- 
man  positively.  "  It  is  a  shame  !  Such  disgrace- 
ful management !  Could  not  they  find  out  how 
the  tide  would  be  here  before  they  left  Dover  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mr.  Parkman.  "  Of  course 
they  knew  perfectly  well  how  the  tide  would 
be." 

"  Then  why  did  not  they  leave  at  such  an  hour 
as  to  make  it  right  for  landing  here  ?  " 

"  There  are  boats  every  day,"  said  Mr.  Park- 
man,  "  which  leave  at  the  right  time  for  that, 
and  most  passengers  take  them.  But  the  mails 
must  come  across  at  regular  hours,  whether  the 
tide  serves  or  not,  and  boats  must  come  to  bring 
the  mails,  and  they,  of  course,  allow  passengers 
to  come  in  these  boats  too,  if  they  choose.  Wo 
surely  cannot  complain  of  that." 


56  Eollo   in   Holland 


The  controversy  between  the  husband  and  wife. 

"  Then  they  ought  to  have  told  us  how  it  was," 
said  Mrs.  Parkman.  "  I  think  it  is  a  shameful 
deception,  to  bring  us  over  in  this  way,  and  not 
let  us  know  any  thing  about  it." 

"  But  they  did  tell  us,"  said  Mr.  Parkman. 
"  Do  not  you  recollect  that  the  porter  at  the  sta- 
tion told  us  that  this  was  a  mail  boat,  and  that 
it  would  not  be  pleasant  for  a  lady." 

"But  I  did  not  know,"  persisted  Mrs.  Park- 
man,  "  that  he  meant  that  we  should  have  to 
land  in  this  way.  He  did  not  tell  us  any  thing 
about  that." 

"  He  told  us  that  it  was  a  mail  boat,  and  he 
meant  by  that  to  tell  us  that  we  could  not  land 
at  the  pier.  It  is  true,  we  did  not  understand 
him  fully,  but  that  is  because  we  come  from  a 
great  distance,  and  do  not  understand  the  cus- 
toms of  the  country.  That  is  our  misfortune. 
It  was  not  the  porter's  fault." 

"I  don't  think  so  at  all,"  said  Mrs.  Parkman. 
"  And  you  always  take  part  against  me  in  such 
things,  and  I  think  it  is  really  unkind." 

All  this  conversation  went  on  in  an  under 
tone  ;  but  though  there  was  a  great  deal  of  noise 
and  confusion  on  every  side,  Rollo  could  hear  it 
all.  While  he  was  listening  to  it,  —  or  rather 
while  he  was  hearing  it,  for  he  took  no  pains  to 
listen,  —  the  gentleman  who  had   been    talking 


The    Mail  Steamer 


57 


Air.  Waldo  s  party  landing  from  the  mail  boat. 


with  Mr.  Waldo,  and  whom  the  latter  had  called 
Mr.  Albert,  went  round  to  the  two  ladies  who 
were  waiting*  to  be  called,  and  said,  — 

"  Now,  ladies,  the  boat  is  ready.  Follow  me. 
Say  nothing,  but  do  just  as  you  are  told,  and  all 
will  go  well." 

So  the  ladies  came  one  after  the  other  in  among 
the  crowd  that  gathered  around  the  gangway, 


LANDING     FKOM    THE    MAIL    BOAT. 

and  there,  before  they  could  bring  their  faculties 
•at  all  to  comprehend  any  thing  distinctly  amid 


58  Rollo   in   Holland. 

Mrs.  Parkmau  refuses  to  go  on  shore. 

the  bewildering  confusion  of  the  scene,  they 
found  their  bags  and  shawls  taken  away  from 
them,  and  they  themselves  turned  round  and 
gently  forced  to  back  down  the  steps  of  the  lad- 
der over  the  boiling  surges,  when,  in  a  moment 
more,  amid  loud  shouts  of  "  Let  go  !  "  they  were 
seized  by  the  sailors  in  the  boat,  and  down  they 
went,  they  knew  not  how,  for  a  distance  of  many 
feet  into  the  stern  of  the  boat,  where  they  sud- 
denly found  themselves  seated,  while  the  boat 
itself  was  rocking  violently  to  and  fro,  and 
thumping  against  the  side  of  the  steamer  in  a 
frightful  manner. 

The  officer,  who  had  charge  of  the  debarka- 
tion on  the  deck  of  the  steamer  above,  immedi- 
ately called  to  Mrs.  Parkman. 

11  Come,  madam  !"  said  he. 

"  No,"  said  she,  "  I  can't  possibly  go  ashore  in. 
that  way." 

"Then  you  will  have  to  stay  on  board  all 
night." 

"  Well,  I'd  rather  stay  on  board  all  night," 
said  she. 

"  And  you  will  have  to  go  back  to  Dover, 
madam,"  continued  the  officer,  speaking  in  a 
very  stern  and  hurried  manner,  "  for  the  steam- 
er is  not  going  into  the  pier  at  all." 

Then  immediately  turning  to  Rollo,  he  said, 
"  Come,  young  man  !  " 


The  Mail   Steamer.  59 


L«ft  on  the  steamboat.  Rollo  in  the  row  boat. 

So  Rcllo  marched  up  to  the  gangway,  and  was 
in  a  moment  whirled  down  into  the  boat,  as  the 
others  had  been.  Immediately  afterwards  the 
boat  pushed  off,  and  the  sailors  began  to  row, 
leaving  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman  on  board  the 
steamer.  How  they  were  to  get  to  the  shore 
Rollo  did  not  know. 

Rollo  began  to  look  about  over  the  water.  It 
had  become  almost  entirely  dark,  and  though 
the  moon,  which  was  full,  had,  as  it  happened, 
broken  out  through  the  clouds  a  short  time  be- 
fore, when  they  were  getting  into  the  boats,  she 
had  now  become  obscured  again,  and  every  thing 
seemed  enveloped  in  deep  gloom.  Still  Rollo 
could  see  at  a  short  distance  before  him  the 
other  boats  slowly  making  their  way  over  the 
wild  and  stormy  water.  He  could  also  see  the 
ends  of  the  piers  dimly  denned  in  the  misty  air, 
and  the  tall  lighthouse  beyond,  with  a  bright 
light  burning  in  the  lantern  at  the  top  of  it. 

"  We  shall  only  be  a  few  minutes,  now,"  said 
one  of  the  gentlemen.  "It  is  not  far  to  the 
piers." 

The  boat  went  on,  pitching  and  tossing  over 
the  waves,  with  her  head  towards  the  piers.  The 
pilot  who  steered  the  boat  called  out  continual- 
ly to  the  oarsmen,  and  the  oarsmen  shouted  back 
to  him  ;  but  nobody  could  understand  such  sailor 


60  Rollo  in  Holland. 

A  strange  course.  The  water  is  too  shoal  to  land. 

language  as  they  used.  At  length,  on  looking 
forward  again,  Rollo  saw  that  the  boats  before 
him,  instead  of  going  on  in  a  line  towards  the 
land,  were  slowly  scattering  in  all  directions, 
and  that  their  own  boat,  instead  of  heading  to- 
wards the  pier  as  at  first,  gradually  turned  round, 
and  seemed  to  be  going  along  in  a  direction  par- 
allel to  the  coast,  as  the  steamer  had  done. 

■  *  What !  "  exclaimed  Mr.  Albert,  on  observ- 
ing this,  "  we  are  not  going  towards  the  piers. 
Where  can  we  be  going  ?  " 

The  other  gentleman  shook  his  head,  and  said 
he  did  not  know. 

The  ladies  remained  quietly  in  their  places. 
There  was  evidently  nothing  for  them  to  do,  and 
so  they  concluded,  very  sensibly,  to  do  nothing. 

The  boat  slowly  turned  her  head  round,  all 
the  time  pitching  and  tossing  violently  on  the 
billows,  until  finally  she  was  directed  almost  to- 
wards the  steamer  again. 

"What  can  be  the  matter?"  asked  one  of  the 
gentlemen,  addressing  the  other.  "  We  are  not 
heading  towards  the  shore."  Then  turning  to- 
wards the  pilot,  he  said  to  him, — 

"  What  is  the  matter  ?  Why  cannot  we  go 
in?" 

The  pilot,  who  spoke  English  very  imperfectly, 
answered,  "  It  is  a  bar.  The  water  is  not  enough/ 


The   Mail  Steamer.  61 

The  travellers  see  the  white  line  of  breakers. 

"  There  is  a  bar,"  said  the  gentleman,  "  outside 
the  entrance  to  the  harbor,  and  the  water  is  not 
deep  enough  even  for  these  boats  to  go  over. 
We  can  see  it." 

Rollo  and  the  others  looked  in  the  direction 
where  the  gentleman  pointed,  and  he  could  see 
a  long,  white  line  formed  by  the  breakers  on  the 
bar,  extending  each  way  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach  along  the  shore.  Beyond  were  to  be  dim- 
ly seen  the  heads  of  the  piers,  and  a  low  line  of 
the  coast  on  either  hand,  with  the  lighthouse  be- 
yond, towering  high  into  the  air,  and  a  bright 
and  steady  light  beaming  from  the  summit  of  it. 

" I  hope  the  tide  is  not  going  down"  said  the 
gentleman,  "for  in  that  case  we  may  have  to 
wait  here  half  the  night." 

"Is  the  tide  going  down,  or  coming  up?"  ha 
said,  turning  again  to  the  pilot. 

"  It  will  come  up.  The  tide  will  come  up," 
answered  the  pilot. 

"What  does  he  say  ?  "  asked  one  of  the  ladie? 
in  a  whisper. 

"  He  says  that  the  tide  will  come  up,"  replied 
the  gentleman.  "  Whether  he  means  it  is  com- 
ing up  now,  or  that  it  will  come  up  some  time  or 
other,  I  do  not  know.  We  have  nothing  to  do 
but  to  remain  quiet,  and  await  the  result." 

The  clouds  had  been  for  some  time  growing 


62  Rollo  in   Holland. 

Rollo  on  the  lookout.  A  dangerous  exper.ment. 

darker  and  darker,  and  now  it  began  to  rain. 
So  the  gentlemen  took  out  their  umbrellas  and 
spread  them,  and  the  party  huddled  together  in 
the  bottom  of  the  boat,  and  sheltered  themselves 
there  as  well  as  they  could  from  the  wind  and 
rain.  They  invited  Rollo  to  come  under  the 
umbrellas  too,  but  he  said  that  the  rain  would 
not  hurt  his  cap,  and  he  preferred  to  sit  where 
he  could  look  out  and  see  what  they  would  do. 

"Very  well,"  said  one  of  the  gentlemen. 
"Tell  us,  from  time  to  time,  how  we  get  along." 

So  Rollo  watched  the  manoeuvring  of  the  boat, 
and  reported,  from  time  to  time,  the  progress  that 
she  was  making.  It  was  not  very  easy  for  him 
to  make  himself  heard,  on  account  of  the  noise 
of  the  winds  and  waves,  and  the  continual  vo- 
ciferations of  the  pilot  and  the  seamen. 

"  We  are  headed  now,"  said  he,  "  right  away 
from  the  shore.  We  are  pointed  towards  the 
steamer.  I  can  just  see  her,  working  up  and 
down  in  the  offing. 

"  Now  the  men  are  backing  water,"  he  con- 
tinued. "We  are  going  stern  foremost  towards 
the  bar.  I  believe  they  are  going  to  try  to  back 
her  over." 

The  boat  now  rapidly  approached  the  lL.e  of 
breakers,  moving  stern  foremost.  The  ro<*r  of 
the  surf  sounded  nearer  and  nearer.     At  lcng:li 


The   Mail  Steamer.  63 


The  boatmen  anchor  the  boat  and  wait  for  the  tide  to  rise. 

the  ladies  and  gentlemen  under  the  umbrellas 
looked  out,  and  they  saw  themselves  in  the  midst 
of  rolling  billows  of  foam,  on  which  the  boat 
rose  and  fell  like  a  bubble.  Presently  they  could 
feel  her  thump  upon  the  bottom.  The  next  wave 
lifted  her  up  and  carried  her  towards  the  shore, 
and  then  subsiding,  brought  her  down  again  with 
another  thump  upon  the  sand.  The  pilot  shouted 
out  new  orders  to  the  seamen.  They  immediate- 
ly began  to  pull  forward  with  their  oars.  Ho 
had  found  that  the  water  was  yet  too  shallow  on 
the  bar,  and  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  pass 
over.  So  the  sailors  were  pulling  the  boat  out 
to  sea  again. 

The  ladies  were,  of  course,  somewhat  alarmed 
while  the  boat  was  thumping  on  the  bar,  and  the 
boiling  surges  were  roaring  so  frightfully  around 
them  ;  but  they  said  nothing.  They  knew  that 
they  had  nothing  to  do,  and  so  they  remained 
quiet. 

11  We  are  clear  of  the  bar,  now,"  said  Rollo. 
continuing  his  report.  "I  can  see  the  breakers 
in  a  long  line  before  us,  but  we  are  clear  of  them. 
Now  the  sailors  are  getting  out  the  anchor.  1 
can  see  a  number  of  the  other  boats  that  are  at 
anchor  already." 

The  anchor,  or  rather  the  grapnel  which  served 
as  an  anchor,  was  now  thrown  overboard,  and 


64  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Hoisting  anchor.  Trying  the  bar  again. 

the  boat  came  to,  head  to  the  wind.  There  she 
lay,  pitching  and  tossing  very  uneasily  on  the 
sea.  The  other  boats  were  seen  lying  in  similar 
situations  at  different  distances.  One  was  very 
near  ;  so  near,  that  instead  of  anchoring  herself, 
the  seamen  threw  a  rope  from  heron  board  the 
boat  where  Rollo  was,  and  so  held  on  by  her,  in- 
stead of  anchoring  herself.  In  this  situation  the 
whole  fleet  of  boats  remained  for  nearly  an 
hour.  Rollo  kept  a  good  lookout  all  the  time, 
watching  for  the  first  indications  of  any  attempt 
to  move. 

At  length  he  heard  a  fresh  command  given  by 
the  pilot,  in  language  that  he  could  not  under- 
stand ;  but  the  sailors  at  the  bows  immediately 
began  to  take  in  the  anchor. 

"  They  are  raising  the  anchor,"  said  he.  "  Now 
we  are  going  to  try  it  again.  There  is  one  boat 
gone  already.  She  is  just  coming  to  the  bar. 
She  is  now  just  in  the  breakers.  I  can  see  the 
white  foam  all  around  her.  She  is  going  in. 
Now  she  is  over.  I  can  see  the  whole  line  of 
foam  this  side  of  her.  Our  boat  will  be  there 
very  soon." 

In  a  very  few  minutes  more  the  boat  entered 
the  surf,  and  soon  began  to  thump  as  before  at 
every  rise  and  fall  of  the  seas.  But  as  each  suc- 
cessive wave  came  up,  she  was  lifted  and  carried 


The  Mail   Steamer.  65 

The  passengers  safe  landed  at  last. 

farther  over  the  bar,  and  at  last  came  to  deep 
water  on  the  other  side. 

"  It  is  all  over  now,"  said  one  of  the  gentle- 
men, "  and,  besides,  it  has  stopped  raining."  So 
he  rose  from  his  place  and  shut  the  umbrella. 
The  ladies  looked  around,  and  to  their  great  joy 
saw  that  they  were  just  entering  between  the 
ends  of  the  piers.  The  passage  way  was  not  very 
wide,  and  the  piers  rose  like  high  walls  on  each 
side  of  it  ;  but  the  water  was  calm  and  smooth 
within,  and  the  boats  glided  along  one  after  an- 
other in  a  row,  in  a  very  calm  and  peaceful  man- 
ner. At  length  they  reached  the  landing  stairs, 
which  were  built  curiously  within  the  pier,  among 
the  piles  and  timbers,  and  there  they  all  safely 
disembarked. 

On  reaching  the  top  of  the  stairs,  Rollo  found 
Mr.  George  waiting  for  him. 

"  Uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  "  here  I  am." 

"Have  you  had  a  good  time?"  asked  Mr. 
George. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  excellent." 

"And  what  became  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Park 
man?" 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo  ;  "I  left  them  on 
board  the  steamer.  She  declared  that  she  would 
uot  come  in  a  small  boat." 

"You  and  I,"  said  Mr.  George,  "will  go  off 


66  KOLLO    IN    HOMAND. 

Mr.  George  and  Hollo  escape  then  companions 

to-morrow  morning  by  the  first  train.  anfl  go 
straight  to  Holland  as  fast  as  we  can,  so  as  to  get 
out  of  their  way." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo.  "Though  I  don't  euro 
much  about  it  either  way." 

Mr.  George,  however,  carried  his  plan  into  ef- 
fect. The  next  day  they  went  to  Antwerp  ;  and 
on  the  day  following  they  crossed  the  Belgian 
frontier,  and  entered  Holland. 


Entering  Holland.  67 


Boundaries  between  different  countries. 


c  hapter  iv. 
Entering  Holland. 

Rollo  and  Mr.  George  went  into  Holland  by 
the  railway.  It  was  a  long  time  before  Rollo 
learned  that  in  travelling  from  one  European 
country  to  another,  he  was  not  to  expect  any  vis- 
ible line  of  demarcation  to  show  the  frontier. 
Boys  at  school,  in  studying  the  shape  and  con- 
formation of  different  countries  on  the  map,  and 
seeing  them  marked  by  distinct  colored  bounda- 
ries, are  very  apt  to  imagine  that  they  will  see 
something,  when  travelling  from  one  country  to 
another,  to  show  them  by  visible  signs  when  they 
pass  the  frontier. 

But  there  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  The  greeD 
fields,  the  groves,  the  farmhouse,  the  succession  of 
villages  continues  unchanged  as  you  travel,  so  that, 
as  you  whirl  along  in  the  railway  carriage,  there 
is  nothing  to  warn  you  of  the  change,  except  the 
custom  house  stations,  where  the  passports  of 
travellers  are  called  for,  and  the  baggage  is  ex- 
amined. 


68  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Signs  of  the  frontier.  The  Belgian  uniform, 

"  Uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  after  looking  out 
of  the  window  at  a  place  where  the  train  stopped, 
twenty  or  thirty  miles  from  Antwerp,  "  I  think 
we  are  coming  to  the  frontier." 

t:  Why  so?"  asked  Mr.  George. 

"  Because  the  Belgian  custom  house  is  at  this 
station,  and  the  next  will  be  the  Dutch  custom 
house." 

Rollo  knew  that  this  was  the  Belgian  custom 
house  by  seeing  the  word  Douane  over  one  of 
the  doors  of  the  station,  and  under  it  the  words 
Visite  des  bagages,  which  means  examination  of 
baggage.  There  were  besides  a  great  many  sol- 
diers standing  about,  which  was  another  indica- 
tion. 

"  How  do  you  know  that  it  is  the  Belgian  cus- 
tom house  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

"  Because  all  these  soldiers  are  in  the  Belgian 
uniform,"  said  he.  "  I  know  the  Belgian  uniform. 
T  don't  know  the  Dutch  uniform,  but  I  suppose  I 
shall  see  it  at  the  next  station." 

Rollo  was  perfectly  right  in  his  calculations. 
The  last  station  on  the  line  of  the  railway  in  Bel- 
gium was  the  frontier  station  for  Belgium,  and 
here  travellers,  coming  from  Holland,  were  called 
upon  to  show  their  passports,  and  to  have  their 
baggage  examined.  In  the  same  manner  the  first 
station  beyond,  which  was  the  first  one  in  Hoi- 


Entering  Holland.  Gfc 


The  Dutch  custom  house.  The  music  box  question. 

land,  was  the  frontier  station  for  that  country, 
and  there  passengers  going  from  Belgium  into 
Holland  were  stopped  and  examined  in  the  same- 
way. 

After  going  on  a  few  miles  from  the  Belgium 
Btation,  the  whistle  blew  and  the  train  began  to 
stop. 

"  Here  we  are ! "  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "  and  now  comes  the 
time  of  trial  for  the  musical  box.'7 

Rollo  had  bought  a  musical  box  at  Antwerp, 
and  he  had  some  fears  lest  he  might  be  obliged  to 
pay  a  duty  upon  it,  in  going  into  Holland.  Mr. 
George  had  told  him  that  he  thought  there  was 
some  danger,  but  Rollo  concluded  that  he  would 
take  the  risk. 

"  They  have  no  business  to  make  me  pay  duty 
upon  it,"  said  he  to  Mr.  George. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

"  Because  it  is  not  for  merchandise,"  said  Rollo. 
"  It  is  not  for  sale.  I  have  bought  it  for  my  own 
ase  alone." 

"That  has  nothing  to  do  with  it,"  said  Mi\ 
George. 

"Yes  it  has,  a  great  deal  to  do  with  it,"  re- 
plied Rollo. 

There  might  have  been  quite  a  spirited  discus* 
Bion  between  Mr.  George  and  Rollo,  on  this  old 


70  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Examination  of  passports  and  baggage.  Mr.  Georgo's  cautious. 

and  knotty  question,  over  which  tourists  in  Eu« 
rope  are  continually  stumbling,  had  not  the  train 
stopped.  The  moment  that  the  motion  ceased, 
the  doors  of  all  the  carriages  were  opened,  and  a 
.man  passed  along  the  line  calling  out  in  French,  — 

11  Gentlemen  and  ladies  will  all  descend  here, 
for  the  examination  of  passports  and  baggage." 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had  no  baggage,  except 
a  valise  which  they  carried  with  them  in  the 
carriage.  Mr.  George  took  this  valise  up  and 
stepped  down  upon  the  platform. 

"  Now,  Rollo,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  if  they  find 
your  musical  box  and  charge  duty  upon  it,  pay  it 
like  a  man." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "I  will." 

"  And  don't  get  up  a  quarrel  with  the  custom 
house  officer  on  the  subject,"  continued  Mr. 
George,  "  for  he  has  the  whole  military  force  of 
the  kingdom  of  Holland  at  his  command,  and 
what  he  says  is  to  be  done,  in  this  territory,  must 
be  done." 

So  saying,  Mr.  George,  valise  in  hand,  followed 
the  crowd  of  passengers  through  a  door,  over 
which  was  inscribed  the  Dutch  word  for  baggage. 
In  the  centre  of  this  room  there  was  a  sort  of 
low  counter,  enclosing  a  sort  of  oblong  square. 
Within  the  square  were  a  number  of  custom 
house   officers,   ready   to   examine    the  baggage 


Entering  Holland.  71 

Passing  the  custom  house.  The  passports  inspected. 

which  the  porters  and  the  passengers  were  bring- 
ing in,  and  laying  upon  the  counter,  all  around 
the  four  sides  of  the  square. 

Mr.  George  brought  up  his  valise,  and  placed 
it  on  the  counter.  A  custom  house  officer,  who 
had  just  examined  and  marked  some  other  par- 
cels, turned  to  Mr.  George's  just  as  he  had  un- 
locked and  opened  it. 

"Have  you  any  thing  to  declare?"  said  the 
officer. 

"  Nothing,  sir,"  said  Mr.  George. 

The  officer  immediately  shut  the  valise,  and 
marked  it  on  the  back  with  a  piece  of  chalk,  and 
Mr.  George  locked  it  and  took  it  away. 

"  Are  you  through  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George. 

Mr.  George  then  took  the  valise  and  followed 
a  crowd  of  passengers,  who  were  going  through 
a  door  at  the  end  of  the  room  opposite  to  where 
they  came  in.  There  was  an  officer  in  uniform 
on  each  side  of  this  door.  These  officers  exam- 
ined every  bag,  valise,  or  parcel  that  the  passen- 
gers had  in  their  hands,  to  see  if  they  had  been 
marked  by  the  examiners,  and  as  fast  as  they 
found  that  they  were  marked,  they  let  them  pass. 

Following  this  company,  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
came  soon  to  another  small  room,  where  a  man 
was  sitting  behind  a  desk,  examining  the  passports 


72  Rollo   in  Holland. 

In  Holland.  The  scener>. 

of  the  passengers  and  stamping  them.  Mr. 
George  waited  a  moment  until  it  came  his  turn, 
and  then  handed  his  passport  too.  The  officer 
looked  at  it,  and  then  stamped  an  impression 
from  a  sort  of  seal  on  one  corner  of  it.  He  also 
wrote  Mr.  George's  and  Rollo's  name  in  a  big 
book,  copying  them  for  this  purpose  from  the 
passport. 

He  then  handed  the  passport  back  again,  and 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  went  out,  passing  by  a  sol- 
dier who  guarded  the  door.  They  found  them- 
selves now  on  the  railway  platform. 

"  Now,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  suppose  that  we  may 
go  and  take  our  seats  again." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  We  are  fairly  en- 
tered within  the  dominions  of  his  majesty  the 
king  of  Holland." 

"  And  no  duty  to  pay  on  my  music  box,"  said 
Rollo. 

Rollo  took  a  seat  by  a  window  where  he  could 
look  out  as  the  train  went  on,  and  see,  as  he  said, 
how  Holland  looked.  The  country  was  one  im- 
mense and  boundless  plain,  and  there  were  no 
fences  or  other  close  enclosures  of  any  kind.  And 
yet  the  face  of  it  was  so  endlessly  varied  with 
rows  of  trees,  groves,  farm  houses,  gardens,  wind 
mills,  roads,  and  other  elements  of  rural  scenery, 
that  Rollo  found  it  extremely  beautiful.      The 


Entering  Holland.  73 

The  beautiful  scenes  which  Hollo  saw.  Dikes.  Road  ways. 

fields  were  very  green  where  grass  was  growing, 
and  the  foliage  of  the  trees,  and  of  the  little  or- 
namental hedges  that  were  seen  here  and  there 
adorning  the  grounds  of  the  farm  houses,  was 
very  rich  and  full.  As  Rollo  looked  out  at  the 
window,  a  continued  succession  of  the  most  bright 
and  beautiful  pictures  passed  rapidly  before  his 
eyes,  like  those  of  a  gayly  painted  panorama,  and 
they  all  called  forth  from  him  continually  repeat- 
ed exclamations  of  delight.  Mr.  George  sat  at 
his  window  enjoying  the  scene  perhaps  quite  as 
much  as  Rollo  did,  though  he  was  much  less  ar- 
dent in  expressing  his  admiration. 

"  See  these  roads,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo  ; 
"  they  run  along  on  the  tops  of  the  embankment 
like  railroads.     Are  those  dikes  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  The  dikes  are  built 
along  the  margin  of  the  sea,  and  along  the  banks 
of  rivers  and  canals,  to  take  the  water  out. 
These  are  embankments  for  the  roads,  to  raise 
them  up  and  keep  them  dry.'7 

There  were  rows  of  trees  on  the  sides  of  these 
raised  roads,  which  formed  beautiful  avenues  to 
shelter  the  carriage  way  from  the  sun.  These 
avenues  could  sometimes  be  seen  stretching  for 
miles  across  the  country. 

"  Now,  pretty  soon,"  said  Rollo,  "  we  shall 
come  to  the  water,  and  then  we  shall  take  a 
steamboat." 


74  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  reason  why  Rotterdam  is  approached  by  steamers. 

"  Then  we  do  not  go  all  the  way  by  the  train, ' 
said  Mr.  George. 

"No,"  said  Rollo.  "The  railroad  stops  at  a 
place  called  Moerdyk,  and  there  we  take  a  steam- 
er and  go  along  some  of  the  rivers. 

"  But  I  can't  find  out  by  the  map  exactly  how 
we  are  to  go,"  he  continued,  "  because  there  are 
so  many  rivers." 

Rollo  had  found,  by  the  map,  that  the  country 
all  about  Rotterdam  was  intersected  by  a  com- 
plete network  of  creeks  and  rivers.  This  system 
was  connected  on  the  land  side  with  the  waters 
of  the  Rhine,  by  the  immense  multitude  of  branch- 
es into  which  that  river  divides  itself  towards  its 
mouth,  and  on  the  other  side  by  innumerable 
creeks  and  inlets  coming  in  from  the  sea.  This 
network  of  channels  is  so  extensive,  and  the  wa- 
ter in  the  various  branches  of  it  is  so  deep,  that 
ships  and  steamers  can  go  at  will  all  about  the 
country.  It  would  be  as  difficult  to  make  a  rail- 
road over  such  a  tract  of  mingled  land  and  water 
as  this,  as  it  is  easy  to  navigate  a  steamer  through 
it ;  and,  accordingly,  the  owners  of  the  line  had 
made  arrangements  for  stopping  the  trains  at 
Moerdyk,  and  then  transferring  the  passengers  to 
a  steamer. 

"  I  have  great  curiosity,"  said  Rollo,  "  to  see 
whether,  when  we  come  to  the  water,  we  shall  go 
up  to  it,  instead  of  down  to  it." 


Entering  Holland.  75 


The  train  arrives  at  Moerdyk.  The  steamer. 

"  Do  you  think  that  we  shall  go  up  to  it  ? r 
asked  Mr.  George. 

"  I  don't  know,"  replied  Rollo.  "  We  do  in 
some  parts  of  Holland.  In  some  places,  accord- 
ing to  what  the  guide  book  says,  the  land  is 
twenty  or  thirty  feet  below  the  level  of  the  wa- 
ter, and  so  when  you  come  to  the  shore  you  go  up 
an  embankment,  and  there  you  find  the  water  on 
the  other  side,  nearly  at  the  top  of  it." 

When  at  length  the  train  stopped  at  Moerdyk, 
the  conductor  called  out  from  the  platform  that  all 
the  passengers  would  descend  from  the  carriages 
to  embark  on  board  the  steamer.  Rollo  was  too 
much  interested  in  making  the  change,  and  in 
hurrying  Mr.  George  along  so  as  to  get  a  good 
seat  in  the  steamer,  to  make  any  observation  on 
the  comparative  level  of  the  land  and  water. 
There  was  quite  a  little  crowd  of  passengers  to 
go  on  board  ;  and  as  they  walked  along  the  pier 
towards  the  place  where  the  steamer  was  lying, 
all  loaded  with  as  many  bags,  cloaks,  umbrellas, 
or  parcels  of  some  sort,  as  they  could  carry,  Rol- 
lo and  Mr.  George  pressed  on  before  them,  Rollo 
leading  the  way.  The  steamer  was  a  long  and 
narrow  boat,  painted  black,  in  the  English  fash- 
ion. There  was  no  awning  over  the  deck,  and 
most  of  the  passengers  went  below. 

"I  don't  see  what  they  are  all  going  below 


76  Rollo    in   Holland. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  find  a  seat.  George  and  Emily. 

for,"   said   Rollo.      "I   should   think  that  they 
would  wish  to  stay  on  deck  and  see  the  scenery." 

So  Rollo  chose  a  seat  by  the  side  of  a  small 
porch  which  was  built  upon  the  deck  over  the 
entrance  to  the  cabin,  and  sat  down  immediately 
upon  it,  making  room  for  Mr.  George  by  his  side. 
There  was  a  little  table  before  him,  and  he  laid 
down  his  guide  book  and  his  great  coat  upon  it. 

"  Now,"  said  he,  "  this  is  good.  We  have  got 
an  excellent  seat,  and  we  will  have  a  first  rate 
time  looking  at  Holland  as  we  go  along." 

Just  then  a  young  man,  dressed  in  a  suit  oi 
gray,  and  with  a  spy  glass  hanging  at  his  side, 
suspended  by  a  strap  from  his  shoulder,  and  with 
a  young  and  pretty,  but  rather  disdainful  looking 
lady  on  his  arm,  came  by. 

"  Now,  Emily,"  said  he,  "which  would  you  pre- 
fer, to  sit  here  upon  the  deck  or  go  below  ?  " 

"0,  George,"  said  she,  "let  us  go  below. 
There's  nothing  to  be  seen  on  the  deck.  The 
country  is  every  where  flat  and  uninteresting." 

"  We  might  see  the  shores  as  we  go  along," 
suggested  her  husband. 

"  0,  there's  nothing  to  be  seen  along  the 
shores,"  said  she ;  "  nothing  but  bulrushes  and 
willows.    We  had  better  go  below." 

So  Emily  led  George  below. 

"  Rollo,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  if  you  would  like 


Entering  Holland.  77 

Mr.  George's  bet.  Rollo  exploring  the  cabin. 

Co  take  a  bet,  I  will  bet  you  the  prettiest  Dutch 
coy  that  you  can  find  in  Amsterdam,  that  that  ia 
another  Mrs.  Parkman." 

"I  think  it  very  likely  she  is,"  said  Rollo. 
"But,  uncle  George,  what  do  you  think  they  have 
got  down  below  ?  I've  a  great  mind  to  go  down 
and  see." 

"  Yery  well,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"And  will  you  keep  my  place  while  I  am 
gone  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  or  you  can  put  your 
cap  in  it  to  keep  it." 

So  Rollo  put  his  cap  in  his  seat,  and  went  down 
below.  In  a  few  minutes  he  returned,  saying 
that  there  was  a  pretty  little  cabin  down  there, 
with  small  tables  set  out  along  the  sides  of  it,  and 
different  parties  of  people  getting  ready  for  break- 
fast. 

"  It  is  rather  late  for  breakfast,"  said  Mr. 
George.     "  It  is  after  twelve  o'clock." 

"  Then  perhaps  they  call  it  luncheon,"  said  Rol- 
lo. "  But  I'd  rather  stay  on  deck.  We  might 
have  something  to  eat  here.  Don't  you  think  we 
could  have  it  on  this  table  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mr.  George,  "  that  is  what  the 
table  is  put  here  for." 

"  Well !  "  said  Rollo,  his  eye  brightening  up  at 
the  idea. 


78  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  travellers  conclude  to  dine  in  Rotterdam.  The  sail. 

"  We  can  ha\  e  it  here,  or  we  can  wait  and  Lave 
it  at  the  hotel  in  Rotterdam,"  said  Mr.  George. 
"  You  may  decide.     I'll  do  just  as  you  say." 

Rollo  finally  concluded  to  wait  till  they  arrived 
at  Rotterdam,  and  then  to  have  a  good  dinner  all 
by  themselves  at  some  table  by  a  window  in  the 
hotel,  and  in  the  mean  time  to  devote  himself,  while 
on  board  the  steamer,  to  observing  the  shores  of 
the  river,  or  arm  of  the  sea,  whichever  it  might 
be,  on  which  they  were  sailing. 

The  steamer  had  before  this  time  set  sail  from 
the  pier,  and  after  backing  out  of  a  little  sort  of 
creek  or  branch  where  it  had  been  moored,  it  en- 
tered a  broad  channel  of  deep  water,  and  began 
rapidly  to  move  along.  The  day  was  pleasant, 
and  though  the  air  was  cool,  Rollo  and  Mr. 
George  were  so  well  sheltered  by  the  little  porch 
by  the  side  of  which  they  were  sitting,  that  they 
were  very  comfortable  in  all  respects. 

Before  long  the  channel  of  water  in  which  the 
steamer  was  sailing  became  more  narrow,  and 
the  steamer  passed  nearer  a  bank,  which  Rollo 
soon  perceived  was  formed  by  a  dike. 

"  See,  see  !  uncle  George,"  said  he.  "  There 
are  the  roofs  of  the  houses  over  on  the  other  side 
of  the  dike.  We  can  just  see  the  tops  of  them. 
The  ground  that  the  houses  stand  upon  must  be  a 
great  deal  below  the  water/ 


Entering  Holland.  79 


The  Dutch  vessels  that  Hollo  saw.  The  pier  and  boat  stairs. 


"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "and  see,  there  arc 
the  tops  of  the  tall  trees." 

The  dike  was  very  regular  in  its  form,  and  it 
wis  ornamented  with  two  rows  of  trees  along  the 
top  of  it.  There  were  seats  here  and  there  under 
the  trees,  and  some  of  these  seats  had  people  sit- 
ting upon  them,  looking  at  the  passing  boats  and 
steamers.  The  water  was  full  of  vessels  of  all 
kinds,  coming  and  going,  or  lying  at  anchor. 
These  vessels  were  all  of  very  peculiar  forms,  be- 
ing built  in  the  Dutch  style,  and  not  painted,  but 
only  varnished,  so  as  to  show  beautifully  the 
natural  color  of  the  wood  of  which  they  were 
made.  They  had  what  Rollo  called  fins  on  each 
side,  which  were  made  to  be  taken  up  or  letdown 
into  the  water,  first  on  one  side  and  then  on  the 
other,  as  the  vessel  was  on  different  tacks  in  beat- 
ing against  the  wind. 

Opposite  to  every  place  where  there  was  a  house 
over  beyond  the  dike,  there  was  a  line  of  steps 
coming  down  the  face  of  the  dike  on  the  hither 
side,  towards  the  water,  with  a  little  pier,  and  a 
boat  fastened  to  it,  below.  These  little  flights 
of  steps,  with  the  piers  and  the  boats,  and  the 
seats  under  the  trees  on  the  top  of  the  dike,  and 
the  roofs  of  the  houses,  and  the  tops  of  the  trees 
beyond,  all  looked  extremely  pretty,  and  present- 
ed a  succession  of  very  peculiar  and  very  charm- 


SO  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  scene  along  the  dike.  The  wind  mills. 

ing  scenes  to  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  as  the  steam- 
er glided  rapidly  along  the  shore. 

In  some  places  the  dike  seemed  to  widen,  so  aa 
to  make  room  for  houses  upon  the  top  of  it. 
There  were  snug  little  taverns,  where  the  cap- 
tains and  crews  of  the  vessels  that  were  sailing 
by  could  stop  and  refresh  themselves,  when  wind 
or  tide  bound  in  their  vessels,  and  now  and  then 
a  shop  or  store  of  some  kind,  or  a  row  of  pretty, 
though  very  queer-looking,  cottages.  At  one 
place  there  was  a  ferry  landing.  The  ferry  house, 
together  with  the  various  buildings  appertaining 
to  it,  was  on  the  top  of  the  dike,  and  a  large  pier, 
with  a  snug  and  pretty  basin  by  the  side  of  it,  be- 
low. There  was  a  flight  of  stairs  leading  upfrom 
the  pier  to  the  ferry  house,  and  also  a  winding 
road  for  carriages.  At  the  time  that  the  steamer 
went  by  this  place,  the  ferry  boat  was  just  com- 
ing in  with  a  carriage  on  board  of  it. 

There  were  a  great  many  wind  mills  here  and 
there  along  the  dike.  Some  were  for  pumping 
up  water,  some  for  sawing  logs,  and  some  for 
grinding  grain.  These  wind  mills  were  very 
large  and  exceedingly  picturesque  in  their  forms, 
and  in  the  manner  in  which  they  were  grouped 
with  the  other  buildings  connected  with  them. 
Rollo  wished  very  much  that  he  could  stop  and 
go  on  shore  and  visit  some  of  these  wind  mills, 
so  as  to  see  how  they  looked  inside. 


Entering  Holland.  81 

Rollo  and  Mr.  George  come  in  sight  of  Dort. 

At  length  the  vessels  and  ships  seemed  to  in- 
crease in  numbers,  and  Mr.  George  said  that  he 
thought  that  they  must  be  approaching  a  town. 
Rollo  looked  upon  the  map  and  found  that  there 
was  a  large  town  named  Dort,  laid  down  on  the 
shores  of  the  river  or  branch  on  which  they  were 
sailing. 

"  It  is  on  the  other  side,"  said  he.  "  Let  us 
go  and  see." 

So  they  both  rose  from  their  seats  and  went 
round  to  the  other  side  of  the  boat,  and  there, 
there  suddenly  burst  upon  their  view  such  a 
maze  of  masts,  spires,  roofs,  and  wind  mills,  all 
mingled  together  in  promiscuous  confusion,  as 
was  wonderful  to  behold.  In  the  centre  of  tho 
whole  rose  one  enormous  square  tower,  which 
seemed  to  belong  to  a  cathedral. 

This  was  Dort,  or  Dortrecht,  as  it  is  often 
called. 

As  the  steamer  glided  rapidly  along  the 
shores,  and  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  attempted  to 
look  into  the  town,  they  saw  not  streets,  but 
canals.  Indeed,  the  whole  place  seemed  just  level 
with  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  far  in  the  in- 
terior of  it  the  masts  of  ships  and  the  roofs  of 
tho  houses  were  mingled  together  in  nearly  equal 
proportion. 

The  steamer  threaded  its  way  among  the  fleet? 
ft 


82  Rollo   in  Holland, 

Kollo  proposes  to  go  ashore  at  Dortrecht.  Too  Into. 

of  boats  and  shipping  that  lay  off  the  town,  and 
at  length  came  to  a  stop  at  a  pier.  The  passen- 
gers destined  for  this  place  began  to  disembark. 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  stood  together  on  the 
deck,  looking  at  the  buildings  which  lined  the 
quay,  and  wondering  at  the  quaint  and  queer 
forms  which  every  thing  that  they  saw  assumed. 

"  I  should  really  like  to  go  ashore  here,"  said 
Mr.  George,  "  and  see  what  sort  of  a  place  it 
is." 

"  Let  us  do  it,  uncle  George  ! "  said  Rollo, 
eagerly.     "  Let  us  do  it !  " 

"  Only  we  have  paid  to  Rotterdam,"  said  Mr. 
G  eorge. 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Rollo.  "  It  will  not  make 
much  difference." 

But  before  Mr.  George  could  make  up  his 
mind  to  go  on  shore,  the  exchange  of  passengers 
was  effected,  and  the  plank  was  pulled  in,  the 
ropes  were  cast  off,  and  the  steamer  once  more 
began  to  move  swiftly  along  over  the  water. 

"  It  is  too  late,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  and  on  the  whole 
it  is  better  for  us  to  go  on." 

In  about  an  hour  more  the  steamer  began  to 
draw  near  to  Rotterdam.  The  approach  to  the 
town  was  indicated  by  the  multitude  of  boats 
and  vessels  that  were  passing  to  and  fro,  and  by 


'llip'' 


Entering  Holland.  S5 

The  travellers  arrived  at  Rotterdam. 

the  numbers  of  steamers  and  wind  mills  tbat 
lined  respectively  the  margins  of  the  water  and 
of  the  land.  The  wind  mills  were  prodigious  in 
size.  They  towered  high  into  the  air  like  so 
many  lighthouses ;  the  tops  of  the  sails,  as  Mr. 
George  estimated,  reached,  as  the  vanes  revolved, 
up  to  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  or  two 
hundred  feet  into  the  air.  It  was  necessary  to 
build  them  high,  in  order  that  the  sails  might 
not  be  becalmed  by  the  houses. 

At  length  the  steamer  stopped  at  a  pier.  Two 
policemen  stood  at  the  plank,  as  the  passengers 
landed,  and  demanded  their  passports.  Mr. 
George  gave  up  his  passport,  as  he  was  directed, 
and  then  he  and  Rollo  got  into  a  carriage  and 
were  driven  to  the  hotel. 


86  Rollo  in  Holland, 


Tl»c  hotbl  ■>«  ..-mtu  *n  iwtterdam  understand  English. 


Chaptsk    V. 
Walks  about  Rotterdam. 

The  hotel  where  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  were 
set  down  was  a  very  magnificent  edifice  standing 
on  the  quay  opposite  to  a  line  of  steamers.  On 
entering  it,  both  our  travellers  were  struck  with 
the  spaciousness  of  the  hall  and  of  the  staircase, 
and  with  the  sumptuous  appearance  in  general 
of  the  whole  interior.  They  called  for  a  cham- 
ber. The  attendants,  as  they  soon  found,  all  un- 
derstood English,  so  that  there  was  no  occasion 
at  present  to  resort  to  the  language  of  signs,  as 
Mr.  George  had  supposed  might  be  necessary. 
In  answer  to  Mr.  George's  request  to  be  shown 
to  a  room,  the  servant  showed  him  and  Rollo  a 
very  large  and  lofty  apartment,  with  immense 
windows  in  front  looking  down  upon  the  piei . 
On  the  back  side  of  the  room  were  two  single 
beds. 

"  This  will  do  very  well  for  us,"  said  Mr. 
George. 


Walks  about  Rotterdam.       87 

The  table  d'hote.  Mr.  George  orders  dinner. 

"  Will  you  dine  at  the  table  d'hote  ?  "  *  asked 
the  waiter. 

The  table  d'hote  is  the  public  table. 

11  At  what  time  is  the  table  d'hote  ?  "  asked 
Mr.  George. 

"  At  half  past  four,"  said  the  waiter. 

"  No/'  said  Mr.  George,  "  we  shall  want  to  be 
out  at  that  time.  We  will  take  something  now 
as  soon  as  we  can  have  it.  Can  you  give  us  a 
beefsteak  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  waiter. 

"Very  well.  Give  us  a  beefsteak  and  some 
coffee,  and  some  bread  and  butter." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  waiter.  "  Will  you  have 
two  beefsteaks,  or  one  beefsteak  ?  " 

"Two,"  said  Rollo,  in  an  under  tone  to  Mr. 
George. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  and  coffee  for  two, 
also." 

So  the  waiter  left  the  travellers  in  their  room, 
and  went  down  stairs.  In  about  ten  minutes  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  went  down  too.  At  the  foot 
of  the  grand  staircase  they  turned  into  the  dining 
room,  where  they  saw  several  tables  set,  and  at 
one  of  them,  near  a  window,  were  the  prepara- 
tions for  their  meal. 

*  Pronounced  tahble  dote. 


88  Rollo  in  Holland. 

A  curious  contrivance  at  the  window.  The  valet  de  j/lace. 

The  window  looked  out  upon  the  quay,  and 
Rollo  could  see  the  men  at  work  getting  out 
hogsheads  and  bales  of  goods  from  a  steamer  that 
was  moored  there.  Besides  looking  across  to  the 
quay,  Rollo  could  also  look  up  and  down  the 
street  without  putting  his  head  out  of  the  window. 
The  way  in  which  he  was  enabled  to  do  this,  was 
by  means  of  looking  glasses  placed  outside. 
These  looking  glasses  were  attached  to  an  iron 
frame,  and  they  were  placed  in  an  inclined  po- 
sition, so  as  to  reflect  the  whole  length  of  the 
street  in  through  the  window.  Thus  a  person 
sitting  at  his  ease  within  the  room,  could  look 
up  and  down  the  street,  as  well  as  across  it,  at  his 
pleasure. 

Rollo  afterwards  observed  such  looking  glasses 
attached  to  the  windows  of  almost  all  the  houses 
in  town. 

The  dinner  was  soon  brought  in,  and  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  ate  it  with  excellent  appetites. 
Just  as  they  had  finished  their  meal,  a  neatly- 
dressed  young  man  came  to  the  table  and  asked 
them  if  they  wished  for  some  one  to  show  them 
about  the  town. 

"  Because,"  said  he,  "  I  am  a  valet  de  place,  and 
I  can  take  you  at  once  to  all  the  places  of  interest, 
and  save  you  a  great  deal  of  time." 

"  How  much  do  you  ask  to  do  it  ?  "  asked  Mr. 
George. 


Walks  about  Rotterdam.       89 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  decide  to  go  alone 

"  Five  francs  a  day,"  said  the  man. 

"  That's  right,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  That's  the 
usual  price.  But  we  shall  not  want  you,  at  least 
for  this  afternoon.  We  may  want  you  to-morrow. 
We  shall  stay  in  town  a  day  or  two." 

The  young  man  said  that  he  should  be  very 
happy  to  serve  them  if  they  should  require  his 
services,  and  then  bowed  and  went  away. 

After  having  finished  their  meal,  Mr.  George 
and  Rollo  set  out  to  take  a  ramble  about  the 
town  by  themselves. 

"  We  will  go  in  search  of  adventures,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  and  if  we  lose  our 
way,  we  shall  be  likely  to  have  some  adventures, 
for  we  cannot  speak  Butch  to  inquire  for  it." 

."  Never  mind,"  said  Rollo,  "  I'm  not  afraid. 
We  will  be  careful  which  way  we  go." 

So  they  went  out  and  took  quite  a  long  ramble 
through  tne  town.  The  first  aspect  of  the  streets 
struck  them  with  astonishment.  The  space  was 
now  more  than  half  filled  with  docks  and  basins, 
and  with  canals  in  which  ships  and  boats  of  every 
kind  were  moving  to  and  fro.  In  fact  almost  every 
street  consisted  one  half  of  canal,  and  one  half 
of  road  way,  so  that  in  going  through  it  you  could 
have  your  choice  of  going  in  a  boat  or  in  a  car* 
riage.     The  water  part  of  the  streets  was  crowd 


yO  Rollo  in  Holland. 

In  Rotterdam  many  merchants  reside  over  their  warehouses. 

ed  densely  with  vessels,  some  of  them  of  the 
largest  size,  for  the  water  was  so  deep  in  the 
canals  that  the  largest  ships  could  go  all  about 
the  town. 

It  was  curious  to  observe  the  process  of  load- 
ing and  unloading  these  vessels,  opposite  to  the 
houses  where  the  merchants  who  owned  them 
lived.  These  houses  were  very  large  and  hand- 
some. The  upper  stories  were  used  for  the 
rooms  of  the  merchant  and  his  family,  and  the 
lower  ones  were  for  the  storage  of  the  goods. 
Thus  a  merchant  could  sit  at  his  parlor  window 
with  his  family  about  him,  could  look  down  upon 
his  ship  in  the  middle  of  the  street  before  his 
house,  and  see  the  workmen  unlading  it  and 
stowing  the  goods  safely  on  his  own  premises,  in 
the  rooms  below. 

In  some  of  the  streets  the  canal  was  in  the 
centre,  and  there  was  a  road  way  along  by  the 
houses  on  each  side.  In  others  there  was  a  road 
way  only  on  one  side,  and  the  walls  of  the  houses 
and  stores  rose  up  directly  from  the  water's  edge 
on  the  other.  It  was  curious,  in  this  case,  to  see 
the  men  in  the  upper  stories  of  these  stores, 
hoisting  goods  up  from  the  vessels  below  by 
means  of  cranes  and  tackles  projecting  from  the 
windows. 

There  was  one  arrangement  in  the  streets  which 


Walks  about  Rotterdam.       9t 

The  sidewalks  in  Rotterdam.  Rollo's  criticism. 

"Rollo  at  first  condemned,  as  decidedly  objection- 
able in  his  mind,  and  that  was,  that  the  sidewalks 
were  smooth  and  level  with  the  pavement  of  the 
street,  differing  only  from  the  street  by  being 
paved  with  bricks,  while  the  road  way  was  paved 
with  stone. 

"  I  think  that  that  is  a  very  foolish  plan,"  said 
Rollo. 

"I  should  not  have  expected  so  crude  a  re- 
mark as  that  from  so  old  and  experienced  a  trav 
eller  as  you,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Why,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo.  "  It  is  plain- 
ly a  great  deal  better  to  have  the  sidewalk  raised 
a  little,  for  that  keeps  the  wheels  of  the  carts  and 
carriages  from  coming  upon  them.  Besides,  there 
ought  to  be  a  gutter." 

"  People  that  have  never  been  away  from  home 
before,"  said  Mr.  George,  "are  very  apt,  when 
they  first  land  in  any  strange  country,  and  observe 
any  strange  or  unusual  way  of  doing  things,  or 
of  making  things,  to  condemn  it  at  once,  and  say 
how  much  better  the  thing  is  in  their  country. 
But  I  thought  that  you  had  travelled  enough  to 
know  better  than  that." 

"How  so?  "asked  Rollo. 

"  Why,  you  see  that  after  people  have  travelled 
more,  they  get  their  ideas  somewhat  enlarged,  and 
they  learn  that  one  way  of  doing  things  may  be 


92  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Mr.  George's  reply  to  Rollo.  Reason  of  the  peculiar  sidewalks. 

best  in  one  country,  and  another  in  another,  on 
account  of  some  difference  in  the  circumstances  or 
the  wants  of  the  two  countries.  So.  when  they 
see  any  thing  done  in  a  new  or  unusual  manner, 
they  don't  condemn  it,  or  laugh  at  it,  until  they 
have  had  time  to  find  out  whether  there  may  not 
be  some  good  reason  for  it." 

"  But  I  don\  see,"  said  Rollo,  "  what  possible 
good  reason  there  can  be  for  having  the  sidewalks 
made  so  that  every  cart  that  comes  along  can  run 
over  you." 

"  And  because  you  don't  in  a  moment  see  every 
reason,  does  that  make  it  certain  that  there  can- 
not be  any  ?  "  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Why,  no,"  replied  Rollo. 

"  Then  if  you  had  travelled  to  much  purpose," 
said  Mr.  George,  "  you  would  suspend  your  judg- 
ment until  you  had  inquired." 

It  was  not  long  before  Rollo  saw  what  the  rea- 
son was  for  making  the  sidewalks  in  this  way. 
Indeed,  with  a  little  reflection,  he  would  probably 
have  thought  of  it  himself. 

The  object  was  to  make  it  easy  to  wheel  and 
convey  the  goods  from  the  ships  across  to  the 
warehouses.  For,  as  the  ships  and  boats  go  into 
almost  all  the  streets  in  the  town,  goods  have  to 
be  wheeled  across  every  where,  from  the  margin 
of  the  quay  tc    the  warehouses  of  the  merchants, 


Walks   about  Rotterdam.       93 

Why  there  ought  not  to  be  any  gutters  in  Rotterdam.  A  moral. 

and  a  range  of  curbstones  and  gutter  would  make 
an  obstacle  that  would  be  very  much  in  the  way. 

Besides,  contrary  to  Rollo's  hastily  formed 
opinion,  there  ought  not  to  be  any  gutters  in  such 
a  town  as  this,  as  far  as  the  streets  are  perfectly 
level,  from  end  to  end  ;  if  gutters  were  made  the 
water  would  not  run  in  them.  The  only  way  to 
have  the  rain  water  carried  off,  is  to  form  a  gen- 
tle slope  from  the  houses  straight  across  the  quay 
to  the  margin  of  the  canal,  and  this  requires  that 
the  connection  between  the  sidewalk  and  the  road 
way  should  be  continuous  and  even.  So  that  on 
every  account  the  plan  adopted  in  Rotterdam  is 
the  best  for  that  town. 

I  advise  all  the  readers  of  this  book,  whether 
old  or  young,  if  they  have  not  yet  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  learn  wisdom  by  actual  experience  in 
travelling,  to  remember  the  lesson  that  Rollo 
learned  on  this  occasion  ;  and  whenever,  in  their 
future  travels,  they  find  any  thing  that  appears 
unusual  or  strange,  not  to  condemn  it  too  soon, 
simply  because  it  is  different  from  what  they  have 
been  accustomed  to  at  home,  but  to  wait  till  they 
have  learned  whether  there  may  not  be  some  good 
cause  for  the  difference. 

Rollo  wished  to  stop  continually,  as  he  and  his 
uncle  walked  along,  to  watch  the  operations  of 
loading  and  unloading  that  were  going  on  be 


91  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  sail  lofts.  Unlading  goods  at  the  waiehouses. 

tween  the  ships  and  the  warehouses.  At  one 
place  was  a  boat  loaded  with  sails,  which  had  ap- 
parently come  from  a  sail  maker's.  The  sails 
were  rolled  up  in  long  rolls,  and  some  people  in 
a  loft  of  a  warehouse  near  were  hoisting  them 
up  with  tackles,  and  pulling  them  in  at  the  win- 
dows. 

At  another  place  two  porters  were  engaged 
wheeling  something  in  wheelbarrows  across  from 
a  slip  to  the  warehouse,  stopping  by  the  way  at 
a  little  platform  to  have  every  wheelbarrow  load 
weighed.  One  of  the  porters  wheeled  the  loads 
from  the  ship  to  the  platform,  and  the  other,  after 
they  were  weighed,  wheeled  them  to  the  ware- 
house. At  the  platform  sat  a  man  with  a  little 
desk  before  him  and  a  big  book  upon  it,  in  which 
he  entered  the  weight  of  each  load  as  it  came. 
As  soon  as  the  load  was  weighed  the  warehouse 
porter  would  take  it  from  the  platform,  wheel  it 
across  the  street  to  the  warehouse,  empty  it  there, 
and  then  bring  back  the  empty  wheelbarrow  and 
set  it  down  by  the  side  of  the  platform.  In  the 
mean  time  the  ship  porter  would  have  wheeled 
another  load  up  to  the  platform  from  the  ship, 
and  by  the  time  that  the  warehouse  porter  had 
come  back,  it  would  be  weighed  and  all  ready  for 
nim.  The  ship  porter,  when  he  brought  the  load- 
ed wheelbarrow,  would  take  back  to  the  ship  the 


Walks   about  Rotterdam.       U5 

The  process  of  tobacco  inspection  described. 

empty  one.  The  whole  operation  went  on  with 
so  much  regularity  and  system,  and  it  worked  so 
well  in  keeping  all  the  men  employed  all  the  time, 
without  either  having  to  wait  at  all  for  the  other, 
that  it  was  a  pleasure  to  witness  it. 

At  another  place  Mr.  George  himself,  as  well 
as  Rollo,  was  much  interested  in  seeing  the  pro- 
cess of  tobacco  inspection.  There  were  a  number 
of  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  with  a  party  of  porters, 
coopers,  inspectors,  and  clerks  examining  them. 
It  was  curious  to  see  how  rapidly  they  would  go 
through  the  process.  The  coopers  would  set  a 
hogshead  up  upon  its  end,  knock  out  the  head, 
loosen  all  the  staves  at  one  end,  whisk  it  over 
upon  the  platform  of  the  scales,  and  then  lift  the 
hogshead  itself  entirely  off,  and  set  it  down  on 
one  side,  leaving  the  tobacco  alone,  in  a  great 
round  pile,  on  the  platform.  Then  when  it  was 
weighed  they  would  tumble  it  over  upon  its  side, 
and  separate  it  into  its  layers,  and  the  inspectors 
would  take  out  specimens  from  all  the  different 
portions  of  it.  Then  they  would  pile  up  the  lay- 
ers again,  and  put  the  hogshead  on  over  them,  as 
you  would  put  an  extinguisher  on  a  candle  ;  and, 
finally,  after  turning  it  over  once  more,  they  would 
put  it  on  the  head,  and  bind  it  ail  up  again  tight 
and  secure,  with  hoop  poles  which  they  nailed  in 
and  around  it.     The  porters  would  then  roll  the 


96  Rollo  in  Holland. 


Celerity  of  the  inspectors.  East  Indiamen.  Queer  signs. 

hogshead  off,  in  order  to  put  it  on  a  cart  and  take 
it  away.  The  whole  operation  was  performed 
with  a  degree  of  system,  regularity,  and  prompt- 
ness, that  was  quite  surprising.  The  whole  work 
of  opening  the  hogshead,  examining  it  thorough- 
ly, weighing  it,  selecting  specimens,  and  putting 
it  up  again,  was  accomplished  in  less  time  than  it 
has  taken  me  here  to  describe  it. 

There  were  a  great  many  other  operations  of 
this  sort  that  arrested  the  attention  of  Mr.  George 
and  Rollo,  as  they  walked  along  the  streets. 
Much  of  the  merchandise  which  they  saw  thus 
landing  from  the  ships,  or  going  on  board  of  them, 
was  of  great  value,  and  the  ships  in  which  it  came 
were  of  immense  size,  such  as  are  engaged  in  the 
East  India  trade.  Mr.  George  said  that  they 
were  the  kind  that  he  had  often  read  about  in 
history,  under  the  name  of  Dutch  East  Indiamen. 

Rollo  was  very  much  amused  at  the  signs  over 
the  doors  of  the  shops,  in  those  streets  where  there 
were  shops,  and  in  the  efforts  that  he  made  to 
interpret  them.  There  was  one  which  read 
Scheep's  Yictualij,  which  Mr.  George  said  must 
mean  victualling  for  ships.  He  was  helped,  how- 
ever, somewhat  in  making  this  translation  by  ob- 
serving what  was  exhibited  in  the  windows  of 
the  shop,  and  at  the  door.  There  was  another 
in  which  Rollo  did  not  require  any  help  to  en- 


Walks  about  Rotterdam.       97 

Rollo  and  Mr.  George  interpreting  Dutch  signs. 

able  him  to  translate  it.  It  was  Tabak,  Koffy, 
und  Thee.  Another  at  first  perplexed  him.  It 
was  this  :  Huis  und  Scheep's  Smedery.  But  by 
seeing  that  the  place  was  a  sort  of  blacksmith's 
shop,  Rollo  concluded  that  it  must  mean  house 
and  ship  smithery,  that  is,  that  it  was  a  place  for 
blacksmith's  work  for  houses  and  ships. 

Over  one  of  the  doors  was  Oosterhouts  und 
Breda's  Bier  Huis.  Mr.  George  said  that  Breda 
was  a  place  not  far  from  Rotterdam,  and  that  the 
last  part  of  the  sign  must  mean  house  for  selling 
Breda  beer.  Rollo  then  concluded  that  the  first 
word  must  mean  something  connected  with  oys- 
ters. There  was  another,  Koffer  en  Zadel 
Makeru.  At  first  Rollo  could  not  make  any 
thing  of  this  ;  but  on  looking  at  the  window  he 
saw  a  painting  of  a  horse's  head,  with  a  handsome 
bridle  upon  it,  and  a  saddle  on  one  side.  So  he 
concluded  it  must  mean  a  trunk  and  saddle 
makery.  He  was  the  more  convinced  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  this  from  the  fact  that  the  word  for 
trunk  or  box,  in  French,  is  coffre. 

Rollo  amused  himself  a  long  time  in  interpret- 
ing in  this  way  the  signs  that  he  saw  in  the 
streets,  and  he  succeeded  so  well  in  it  that  he 
told  Mr.  George  that  he  believed  he  could  learn 
the  Putch  language  very  easily,  if  he  were  going 
to  stay  for  any  considerable  time  in  Holland. 


08  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Woodon  shoes.  Canal  bridges.  Collecting  toll. 

Another  thing  that  amused  Rollo  very  much, 
was  to  see  the  wooden  shoes  that  were  worn  by 
the  common  people  in  the  streets.  These  shoea 
appeared  to  Rollo  to  be  very  large  and  clumsy  ; 
but  even  the  little  children  wore  them,  and  the 
noise  that  they  made,  clattering  about  the  pave- 
ments with  them,  was  very  amusing. 

In  a  great  many  places  where  the  streets  inter- 
sected each  other,  there  were  bridges  leading 
across  the  canals.  These  bridges  were  of  a  very 
curious  construction.  They  were  all  draw  bridges, 
and  as  boats  and  vessels  were  continually  passing 
and  repassing  along  the  canals,  it  became  fre- 
quently necessary  to  raise  them,  in  order  to  let 
the  vessels  go  through.  The  machinery  for  rais- 
ing these  bridges  and  letting  them  down  again, 
was  very  curious  ;  and  Rollo  and  Mr.  George 
were  both  glad,  when,  in  coming  to  the  bridge, 
they  found  it  was  up,  as  it  gave  them  an  oppor- 
tunity to  watch  the  manoeuvre  of  passing  the  ves- 
sel through. 

Every  boat  and  vessel  that  went  through  had 
a  toll  to  pay,  and  the  manner  of  collecting  this 
toll  was  not  the  least  singular  part  of  the  whole 
procedure.  While  the  bridge  was  up,  and  when 
the  boat  had  passed  nearly  through,  the  helmsman, 
or  helmswoman,  as  the  case  might  be,  —  for  one 
half  the  boats  and  vessels  seemed  to  be  steered  by 


WiLKS  about  Rotterdam.       99 

Tollmen  fishing  for  money.  The  narrow  draw.  The  ferry. 

women,  —  would  get  the  money  ready  ;  and  then 
the  tollman,  who  stood  on  the  abutment  of  the 
bridge,  would  swing  out  to  the  boat  one  of  the 
wooden  shoes  above  described,  which  was  sus- 
pended by  a  long  line  from  the  end  of  a  pole, 
like  a  fishing  pole.  The  tollman  would  swing 
out  this  shoe  over  the  boat  that  was  passing 
through,  as  a  boy  would  swing  his  hook  and  sink- 
er out  over  the  water  if  he  were  going  to  catch 
fish.  The  helmsman  in  the  boat  would  take  hold 
of  it  when  it  came  within  his  reach,  and  put  the 
money  into  the  toe  of  it.  The  tollman  would 
then  draw  it  in,  and,  taking  out  the  money,  would 
carry  it  to  his  toll  house,  which  was  a  small  build- 
ing, not  much  bigger  than  a  sentry  box  that  stood 
on  the  pier  close  by. 

In  one  case  Rollo  came  to  a  bridge,  which,  in- 
stead of  being  made  to  be  raised  entirely,  had 
only  a  very  narrow  part  in  the  centre,  just  wide 
enough  for  the  masts  and  rigging  of  the  ship  to 
go  through,  that  could  be  moved.  When  this 
part  was  lifted  up  to  let  a  vessel  pass,  it  made 
only  a  very  narrow  opening,  such  as  a  boy  might 
jump  across  very  easily. 

In  some  places  where  the  passing  and  repass- 
ing of  ships  was  very  great,  there  was  a  ferry 
instead  of  a  bridge.  In  these  cases  there  was  a 
flat-bottomed  boat  to  pass  to  and  from  one  side 


100  Rollo  in  Holland. 

A  sheet  of  water.  Attractive  scenes  in  Rotterdam. 

to  the  other,  with  a  pretty  little  landing  of  stone 
steps  at  each  end.  Rollo  was  much  entertained 
by  these  ferries.  He  said  it  was  crossing  a  street 
by  water.  And  it  was  exactly  that,  and  no  more. 
The  place  where  he  first  crossed  one  of  these 
ferries  was  precisely  like  a  broad  street  of  wa- 
ter, with  ships  and  boats  going  to  and  fro  upon 
it,  instead  of  carriages,  and  a  very  wide  brick 
sidewalk  on  each  side.  The  ferry  was  at  the 
crossing,  at  the  place  where  another  street  in- 
tersected it. 

As  the  houses  on  each  side  of  these  streets 
were  very  large  and  handsome,  and  as  there 
were  rows  of  beautiful  trees  on  the  margin  of 
the  water,  and  as  every  thing  about  the  water, 
and  the  ships,  and  the  quays,  and  the  sidewalks, 
was  kept  very  neat  and  clean,  the  whole  view,  as 
it  presented  itself  to  Rollo  and  Mr.  George 
while  they  were  crossing  in  the  boat,  was  ex- 
ceedingly attractive  and  exciting. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  remained  in  Rotterdam 
several  days  before  they  were  satisfied  with  the 
curious  and  wonderful  spectacles  which  it  pre- 
sented to  view.  In  one  of  their  walks  they 
made  the  entire  circuit  of  the  town,  and  Mr. 
George  agreed  with  Rollo  in  the  opinion  that 
this  was  one  of  the  most  interesting  walks  thej? 
had  ever  taken. 


Walks  about   Rotterdam.      103 


What  the  travellers  saw  in  making  the  circuit  of  the  town. 


The  way  led  along  a  smooth  and  beautiful 
road,  which  was  neatly  paved,  and  kept  very  nice 
and  clean.  On  the  right  hand  side  there  ex- 
tended along  the  whole  length  of  it  a  wide  ca- 
nal, with  boats  all  the  time  going  to  and  fro. 
This  canal  looked  brimming  full.  The  water,  in 
fact,  came  up  within  a  few  inches  of  the  level  of 
the  road.  The  line  of  the  road  was  formed  by 
a  smooth  and  straight  margin  of  stone,  —  like 
the  margin  of  a  fountain,  —  with  little  platforms 
extending  out  here  and  there,  where  neatly- 
dressed  girls  and  women  were  washing. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  road,  down  ten  feet 
or  more  below  the  level  of  it,  was  a  range  of 
houses,  with  yards,  gardens,  and  fields  about 
them.  The  way  to  these  houses  was  by  paths 
leading  down  from  the  dike  on  which  the  road 
was  built,  and  across  little  bridges  built  over  a 
small  canal  which  extended  between  them  and 
the  dike.  This  small  canal  was  for  the  draining 
of  the  land  on  which  the  houses  stood.  The 
water  in  this  canal  had  a  gentle  flow  towards 
the  end  of  the  street,  where  there  was  a  wind 
mill  to  pump  it  up  into  the  great  canal  on  the 
other  side  of  the  street. 

As  Rollo  and  Mr.  George  walked  along  thia 
road,  it  was  very  curious  to  them  to  see  the  wa- 
ter on  one  side  so  much  higher  than  the  land  on 


104  Rollo   in  Holland. 

Glimpses  of  the  country.  Fences  of  water.  The  square  ferry. 

the  other.  At  the  intervals  between  the  houses 
they  obtained  glimpses  of  the  interior  of  the 
country,  which  consisted  of  level  fields  lying  far 
below  where  they  were  standing,  and  intersected 
in  every  direction  by  small  canals,  which  served 
the  purpose  at  the  same  time  of  fences,  roads, 
and  drains.  There  seemed  to  be  no  other  di- 
visions than  these  between  the  lands  of  the  dif- 
ferent proprietors,  and  no  other  roads  for  bring- 
ing home  the  hay  or  grain,  or  other  produce 
which  might  be  raised  in  the  fields. 

In  pursuing  their  walk  around  the  town,  our 
travellers  were  continually  coming  to  objects  so 
curious  in  their  construction  and  use,  as  to  ar- 
rest their  attention  and  cause  them  to  stop  and 
examine  them.  At  one  place  they  saw  a  little 
ferry  boat,  which  looked  precisely  like  a  little 
floating  room.  It  was  square,  and  had  a  roof 
over  it  like  a  house,  with  seats  for  the  passen- 
gers below.  This  boat  plied  to  and  fro  across 
the  canal,  by  means  of  a  rope  fastened  to  each 
shore,  and  running  over  pulleys  in  the  boat. 

"  We  might  take  this  ferry  boat,"  said  Mr. 
George,  "  and  go  across  the  canal  into  the  town 
again.  See,  it  lands  opposite  to  one  cf  the 
streets." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  but  I  would  rather  keey 
on,  and  go  all  around  the  town  outside." 


Walks   about   Rotterdam.     105 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  cross  the  ferry.  Making  change. 

"  We  might  go  over  in  the  ferry  boat  just  for 
the  fun  of  it,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  and  then  come 
back  again." 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo.  "  How  much  do  you  sup 
pose  the  toll  is  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  It  can't 
be  much,  it  is  such  a  small  boat,  and  goes  such  a 
little  way  ;  and  then,  besides,  I  know  it  must  be 
cheap,  or  else  there  could  not  so  many  of  these 
girls  and  women  go  back  and  forth." 

For  while  they  had  been  looking  at  the  boat, 
as  they  gradually  approached  the  spot,  they  had 
seen  it  pass  to  and  fro  with  many  passengers, 
who,  though  they  were  very  neatly  dressed,  were 
evidently  by  no  means  wealthy  or  fashionable 
people. 

So  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  went  to  the  margin 
of  the  road  where  the  ferry  boat  had  its  little 
landing  place,  and  when  it  came  up  they  stepped 
on  board.  The  ferryman  could  only  talk  Dutch, 
and  so  Mr.  George  could  not  ask  him  what  was 
to  pay.  The  only  thing  to  be  done  was  to  give 
him  a  piece  of  silver,  and  let  him  give  back  such 
change  as  he  pleased.  Mr.  George  gave  him  a 
piece  of  money  about  as  big  as  half  a  franc,  and 
he  got  back  so  much  change  in  return  that  he 
said  he  felt  richer  than  he  did  before. 

At  another  place  they  came  to  a  bridge  that 


106  Rollo   in   Holland. 


The  canal  boat  and  its  occupants. 


led  across  the  canal.  This  bridge  turned  on  a 
pivot  placed  out  near  the  middle  of  the  canal,  so 
that  it  could  be  moved  out  of  the  way  when 
there  was  a  boat  to  go  by.  A  man  was  turning 
it  when  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  came  along. 
They  stopped  to  witness  the  operation.  They 
were  quite  amused,  not  merely  with  the  ma- 
noeuvring of  the  bridge,  but  with  the  form  and 
appearance  of  the  boat  that  was  going  through. 
It  seemed  to  be  half  boat  and  half  house.  There 
was  a  room  built  in  it,  which  rose  somewhat 
above  the  deck,  and  showed  several  little  win- 
dows with  pretty  curtains  to  them.  There  was 
a  girl  sitting  at  one  of  these  windows,  knitting, 
and  two  or  three  children  were  playing  about 
the  deck  at  the  time  that  the  boat  was  going 
through  the  bridge. 

Farther  on  the  party  came  to  an  immense  wind 
mill,  which  was  employed  in  pumping  up  water. 
This  wind  mill,  like  most  of  the  others,  was  built 
of  brick.  It  rose  to  a  vast  height  into  the  air, 
and  there  its  immense  sails  were  slowly  revolv- 
ing. The  wind  mill  was  forty  or  fifty  feet  in 
diameter  at  the  base,  and  midway  between  the 
base  and  the  summit  was  a  platform  built  out, 
that  extended  all  around  it.  The  sails  of  the 
mill,  as  they  revolved,  only  extended  down  to 
this  platform,  and  the  platform  itself  was  above 


Walks  about  Rotterdam.     107 

The  wind  mill.  The  walk  in  the  environs.  The  avenue. 

the   roofs  of  the  four-story  houses  that  stood 
near. 

At  the  foot  of  this  wind  mill  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  could  see  the  water  running  in  under  it, 
through  a  sluice  way  which  led  from  a  low  canal, 
and  on  the  other  side  they  could  see  it  pouring 
out  in  a  great  torrent,  into  a  higher  one. 

Besides  making  this  circuit  around  the  town, 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  one  evening  took  a  walk 
in  the  environs,  on  a  road  wtiich  led  along  on 
the  top  of  a  dike.  The  dike  was  very  broad, 
and  the  descent  from  it  to  the  low  land  on  each 
side  was  very  gradual.  On  the  slopes  on  each 
side,  and  along  the  margin  on  the  top,  were  rows 
of  immense  trees,  that  looked  as  if  they  had  been 
growing  for  centuries.  The  branches  of  these 
trees  met  overhead,  so  as  to  exclude  the  sun  en- 
tirely. They  made  the  road  a  deeply-shaded 
avenue,  and  gave  to  the  whole  scene  a  very 
sombre  and  solemn  expression.  On  each  side 
of  the  road,  down  upon  the  low  land  which 
formed  the  general  level  of  the  country,  were  a 
succession  of  country  houses,  the  summer  res- 
idences of  the  rich  merchants  of  Rotterdam. 
These  houses  were  beautifully  built  ;  and  they 
were  surrounded  with  grounds  ornamented  in 
the  highest  degree.     There  were  winding  walks, 


108 


Rollo   in   Holland. 


Mr.  George  and  Rollo  upon  the  dike. 


and  serpentine  canals,  and  beds  of  flowers,  and 
pretty  bridges,  and  summer  houses,  and  groves 
of  trees,  and  every  thing  else  that  can  add  to  the 
beauty  of  a  summer  retreat. 

All  these  scenes  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  looked 
down  upon  as  they  sauntered  slowly  along  the 
smooth  sidewalk  of  the  dike,  under  the  majestic 
trees  which  shaded  it.  The  place  where  they 
were  walking  on  the  dike  was  on  a  level  with 
the  second  story  windows  of  the  houses. 


Doing  the  Hague.  109 


Why  Mr.  Goorge  did  not  wish  to  stay  long  at  the  Hague. 


Chapter  VI. 
Doing  the  Hague. 

"  And  now  what  is  the  next  place  that  we  shall 
'jome  to  ?  "  said  Rollo  to  Mr.  George  one  morn- 
ing after  they  had  been  some  days  in  Rotterdam. 

"  The  Hague,"  replied  Mr.  George. 

"  Ah,  yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  that  is  the  capital. 
We  shall  stop  there  a  good  while  I  suppose,  be- 
cause it  is  the  capital." 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George,  "I  shall  go  through 
it  just  as  quick  as  1  can  for  that  very  reason.  I 
have  a  great  mind  not  to  stop  there  at  all." 

"  W  hy,  uncle  George  I  "  exclaimed  Rollo,  sur- 
prised, "  what  do  you  mean  by  that  ?  " 

"  Why,  the  Hague,"  rejoined  Mr.  George,  "  is 
the  place  where  the  king  lives,  and  the  princes, 
and  the  foreign  ambassadors,  and  all  the  fashion- 
able people ;  and  there  will  be  nothing  to  see 
there,  I  expect,  but  palaces,  and  picture  galleries, 
and  handsome  streets,  and  such  things,  all  of 
which  we  can  see  more  of  and  better  in  Paris 
or  London." 


110  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Leaving  Rotterdam.  Rollo  engages  a  boat. 

"  Still  we  want  to  see  what  sort  of  a  place  the 
Hague  is,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  and  I  expect  to  do 
that  in  a  very  short  time,  and  then  I  shall  go  on 
to  Haarlem,  where  they  have  had  such  a  time  with 
their  pumping." 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  packed  up  their  valise, 
paid  their  bill  at  the  hotel,  and  set  off  for  the 
station. 

"  Let's  go  to  the  station  by  water,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  if  you  will  engage 
a  boat." 

"  I  know  a  place  not  far  from  here  where  there 
is  a  boat  station,"  said  Rollo. 

So  Rollo  led  the  way  until  they  came  to  a 
bridge,  and  there,  by  the  side  of  the  bridge,  were 
some  stairs  leading  down  to  the  water.  There 
were  several  boats  lying  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs, 
and  boatmen  near,  who  all  called  out  in  Dutch, 
"  Do  you  want  a  boat  ?  "  At  least  that  was  what 
Rollo  supposed  they  said,  though,  of  course,  he 
could  not  understand  their  language.  Rollo 
walked  down  the  steps,  and  got  into  one  of  the 
boats,  and  Mr.  George  followed  him. 

4  I  can't  speak  Dutch,"  said  Rollo  to  the  boat- 
man, "but  that  is  the  way  we  want  to  go."  So 
saying,  Rollo  pointed  in  the  direction  which  led 
towards  the  station.     The  man  did  not  under- 


Doing  the  Hague.  Ill 

How  Kollo,  from  his  map,  directed  the  boatman  b}'  signs. 

stand  a  word  that  Rollo  had  said  ;  but  still,  by 
hearing  it,  he  learned  the  fact  that  Rollo  did  not 
speak  the  language  of  the  country,  and  by  his 
signs  he  knew  that  he  must  go  the  way  that  he 
pointed.     So  he  began  to  row  the  boat  along. 

"  We  cannot  go  quite  to  the  station  by  the 
boat,"  said  Rollo,  "  but  we  can  go  pretty  near  it, 
and  we  can  walk  the  rest  of  the  way." 

11  How  will  you  find  out  the  way,"  asked  Mr. 
George,  "  through  all  these  canals  ?  " 

"  I  can  tell  by  the  map,"  said  Rollo. 

So  Rollo  sat  down  on  a  seat  at  the  stern  of  the 
boat,  and  taking  out  his  map,  which  was  printed 
on  a  pocket  handkerchief,  he  spread  it  on  his 
knee,  and  began  to  study  out  the  canals. 

"There,"  said  he,  "we  are  going  along  this 
canal,  now  ;  and  there,  a  little  way  ahead  from 
here,  is  a  bridge  that  we  shall  go  under.  Then 
we  shall  make  a  turn,"  continued  Rollo,  still 
studying  his  map.  "  We  shall  have  to  go  a 
very  round-about  way  ;  but  that  is  no  matter." 

So  they  went  on,  Rollo  at  each  turn  pointing 
to  the  boatman  which  way  he  was  to  go.  Some- 
times the  boat  was  stopped  for  a  time  by  a  jam  in 
the  boats  and  vessels  before  it,  as  a  hack  might 
be  stopped  in  Broadway  in  New  York.  Some- 
times it  went  under  bridges,  and  sometimes 
through  dark  archways,  where  Rollo  could  hear 


112  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  travellers  arrive  at  the  railway  station. 

carriages  rumbling  over  his  head  in  the  streets 
above. 

At  length  the  boat  reached  the  point  which 
Rollo  thought  was  nearest  to  the  station  ;  and 
the  man,  at  a  signal  which  Rollo  gave  him, 
stopped  at  some  steps.  Rollo  paid  the  fare  by 
holding  out  a  handful  of  money  in  his  hand,  and 
letting  the  man  take  what  was  right,  watching 
him,  however,  to  see  that  he  did  not  take  too 
Kiuch. 

Then  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  both  went  ashore, 
and  walked  the  rest  of  the  way  to  the  station. 

In  the  European  railroad  stations  there  are 
different  waiting  rooms  for  the  different  classes 
of  travellers.  Mr.  George  sometimes  took  sec- 
ond class  carriages,  and  sometimes  first.  For 
short  distances  he  generally  went  first  class,  and 
as  it  was  only  a  few  miles  to  the  Hague  from 
Rotterdam,  he  now  went  into  the  first  class  wait- 
ing room.  There  was  a  counter  for  refreshment 
in  one  corner  of  the  room,  and  some  sofas  along 
the  sides.  Mr.  George  sat  down  upon  one  of  the 
sofas,  putting  his  valise  on  the  floor  at  the  end 
of  it.  Rollo  said  that  he  would  go  out  and  take 
a  little  walk  around  the  station,  for  it  was  yet 
half  an  hour  before  the  train  was  to  go. 

In  a  few  minutes  after  Rollo  had  gone,  there 
came  to  the  door,  among  other  carriages,  one 


Doing  the  Hague.  113 

An  unexpected  meeting.  What  Mrs.  Parkman  thought  of  Holland. 

from  which  Mr.  George,  to  his  great  surprise,  saw 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman  get  out.  Mr.  George's 
first  thought  was  to  go  out  by  another  door,  and 
make  his  escape.  But  he  checked  this  impulse, 
skying  to  himself, 

"  It  would  be  very  ungenerous  in  me  to  aban- 
don my  old  friend  in  his  misfortune  ;  so  I  wir 
stay." 

Mr.  Parkman  seemed  very  much  delighted,  aa 
well  as  surprised,  to  see  Mr.  George  again  ;  and 
Mrs.  Parkman  gave  him  quite  a  cordial  greeting, 
although  she  half  suspected  that  Mr.  George  did 
not  like  her  very  well. 

Mr.  George  asked  her  how  she  liked  Holland, 
so  far  as  she  had  seen  it. 

"Not  much,"  said  she.  "The  towns  are  not 
pretty.  The  streets  are  all  full  of  canals,  and 
there  is  nothing  to  be  seen  but  boats  and  ships. 
And  what  ugly  wooden  shoes  they  wear.  Did 
you  ever  sen  any  thing  so  ugly  in  all  your  life  ?  " 

"  They  look  pretty  big  and  clumsy,"  said  Mr. 
George,  "  I  must  admit ;  but  it  amuses  me  to  see 
them." 

"At  the  Hague  I  expect  to  find  something 
worth  seeing,"  continued  Mrs.  Parkman.  "  That's 
where  the  king  and  all  the  great  people  live,  and 
all  the  foreign  ambassadors.  If  William  had 
only  got  letters  of  introduction  to  some  of  them 
8 


114  Rollo   in   Holland. 

Mr.  Parkman  makes  a  proposal  to  Mr.  Gcoree. 

He  might  have  got  them  just  as  well  as  not. 
Our  minister  at  London  would  have  given  him 
some  if  he  had  asked  for  them.  But  he  said  be 
did  not  like  to  ask  for  them." 

"Strange!"  said  Mr.  George. 

"Yes,"  rejoined  Mrs.  Parkman,  "I  think  it  ia 
not  only  strange,  but  foolish.  I  want  to  go  to 
some  of  the  parties  at  the  Hague,  but  we  can't 
stop.  William  says  we  can  only  give  one  day  to 
the  Hague." 

"  0,  you  can  do  it  up  quite  well  in  one  day," 
said  Mr.  George. 

"If  you  would  only  go  with  us  and  show  us 
how  to  do  it,"  said  Mrs.  Parkman. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Parkman.  "  Do,  George.  Go 
with  us.  Join  us  for  one  day.  I'll  put  the  whole 
party  entirely  under  your  command,  and  you  shall 
have  every  thing  your  own  way." 

Mr.  George  did  not  know  what  to  reply  to 
this  proposition.  At  last  he  said  that  he  would 
go  and  find  Rollo,  and  consult  him  on  the  subject, 
arid  if  Rollo  approved  of  it  they  would  consent 
to  the  arrangement. 

Mrs.  Parkman  laughed  at  hearing  this.  "  Why," 
said  she,  "  is  it  possible  that  you  are  under  that 
boy's  direction  ?" 

"Not  exactly  that,"  said  Mr.  George.  "But 
then  he  is  my  travelling  companion,  and  it  is  not 


Doing  the  Hague.  115 


Commit  your  travelling  companions  before  yon  change  your  plans. 

right  for  one  person,  in  such  a  case,  to  make  any 
great  change  in  the  plan  without  at  least  first 
hearing  what  the  other  has  to  say  about  it." 

"That's  very  true,"  replied  Mrs.  Parkman. 
"  Do  you  hear  that,  William  ?  You  must  remem- 
ber that  when  you  are  going  to  change  the  plana 
without  asking  my  consent." 

Mrs.  Parkman  said  this  in  a  good-natured  way, 
as  if  she  meant  it  in  joke.  It  was  one  of  those 
cases  where  people  say  what  they  wish  to  have 
considered  as  meant  in  a  joke,  but  to  be  taken  in 
earnest. 

Mr.  George  went  out  to  look  for  Polio.  He 
found  him  lying  on  the  grass  by  the  side  of  a 
small  canal  which  flowed  through  the  grounds, 
and  reaching  down  to  the  water  to  gather  some 
curious  little  plants  that  were  growing  upon  it. 
Mr.  George  informed  him  that  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Parkman  were  at  the  station,  and  that  they  had 
proposed  that  he  himself  and  Polio  should  join 
their  party  in  seeing  the  Hague. 

"  And  I  suppose  you  don't  want  to  do  it,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  Why,  yes,"  .said  Mr.  George,  "  I've  taken  a 
notion  to  accept  the  proposal  if  you  like  it. 
We'll  then  do  the  Hague  in  style,  and  I  shall  get 
oack  into  Mrs.  Parkman's  good  graces.  Then 
we  will  bid  them  good  by,  and  after  that  you  and 
t  will  travel  on  in  our  own  way." 


lib  Eollo  in  Holland. 

Dialogue  between  the  travellers  about  their  plans. 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  agree  to  it." 

Mr.  George  accordingly  went  back  into  the 
station,  and  told  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman  that  he 
and  Rollo  would  accept  their  invitation,  and  join 
with  them  in  seeing  what  there  was  in  the  Hague. 

"  And  then,  after  that,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  we 
shall  come  back  to  Delft,  while  you  go  on  to  Am- 
sterdam." 

"  I  wish  you  would  go  on  with  us,"  said  Mr. 
Parkman. 

"  We  can't  do  that  very  well,"  said  Mr.  George. 
"  We  want  to  try  a  Dutch  canal  once,  and  a  good 
place  to  try  it  is  in  going  from  the  Hague  to 
Delft.  It  is  only  about  four  or  five  miles.  We 
are  going  there  by  the  canal  boat,  and  then  com- 
ing back  on  foot." 

Mr.  George  had  taken  care  in  planning  the 
course  which  he  and  Rollo  were  to  pursue  after 
leaving  the  Hague,  to  contrive  an  expedition 
which  he  was  very  sure  Mrs.  Parkman  would  not 
wish  to  join  in. 

"  0,  Mr.  George  !  "  she  exclaimed,  "  what 
pleasure  can  there  be  in  going  on  a  canal?" 

"Why,  the  canal  boats  are. so  funny!"  said 
Rollo.  "And  then  we  see  such  curious  little 
places  all  along  the  banks  of  them,  and  we  meet 
so  many  boats,  carrying  all  sorts  of  things." 

"  1  don't  think  it  would  be  very  agreeable  foi 


Doing  the  Hague.  117 

What  Mr.  George  said  to  the  officer. 

a  lady,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "  but  Rollo  and  1 
thought  we  should  like  to  try  it." 

Just  at  this  moment  the  door  leading  to  the 
platform  opened,  and  a  man  dressed  in  a  sort  of 
uniform,  denoting  that  he  was  an  officer  of  the 
railroad,  called  out  in  Dutch  that  the  train  was 
coming.  The  ladies  and  gentlemen  that  were 
assembled  in  the  waiting  room  immediately  took 
up  their  bags  and  bundles,  and  went  out  upon 
the  platform.  As  they  went  out,  Mr.  George,  in 
passing  the  man  in  uniform,  slipped  a  piece  of 
money  into  his  hand,  and  said  to  him  in  an  under 
tone,  first  in  French  and  then  in  English,  — 

"  A  good  seat  by  a  window  for  this  lady." 

The  officer  received  the  money,  made  a  bow  of 
assent,  and  immediately  seemed  to  take  the  whole 
party  under  his  charge.  When  the  train  arrived, 
and  had  stopped  before  the  place,  there  was  a 
great  crowd  among  the  new  passengers  to  get  in 
and  procure  seats.  The  officer  beckoned  to  Mr. 
George  to  follow  him,  but  Mrs.  Parkman  seemed 
disposed  to  go  another  way.  She  was  loob'ng 
eagerly  about  here  and  there  among  the  carriages, 
as  if  the  responsibility  of  finding  seats  *br  (he 
party  devolved  upon  her. 

"What  shall  we  do?"  said  she.  '  The  c?a?s 
are  all  full." 

"Leave  it  to  me,"  said  Mr.  George  to  hi •••  n 


118  Rollo   in   Holland. 

Mrs.  Parkman  is  solicitous  to  get  a  good  neat. 

an  under  tone.  "  Leave  it  entirely  to  me.  You'll 
see  presently." 

The  officer,  finding  the  carriages  generally  full, 
said  to  Mr.  George,  in  French,  "  Wait  a  mo- 
ment, sir."  So  Mr.  George  said  to  the  rest  of 
the  party  — 

"  We  will  all  stand  quietly  here.  He'll  come 
to  us  presently." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Parkman,  "  when  all  the 
seats  are  taken.  We  shan't  get  seats  at  all, 
William." 

"  You'll  see,"  said  Mr.  George. 

In  a  moment  more  the  officer  came  to  the  par- 
ty, and  bowing  respectfully  to  Mrs.  Parkman,  he 
said, 

"  Now,  madam." 

He  took  out  a  key  from  his  pocket,  and  un- 
locked the  door  of  a  carriage  which  had  not  be- 
fore been  opened,  and  standing  aside,  he  bowed 
to  let  Mrs.  Parkman  pass. 

Mrs.  Parkman  was  delighted.  There  was  no- 
body in  the  carriage,  and  so  she  had  her  choice 
of  the  seats.  She  chose  one  next  the  window  on 
the  farther  side.  Her  husband  took  the  seat  op- 
posite to  her. 

"  Ah  !  "  said  she,  with  a  tone  of  great  satisfac- 
tion, "  how  nice  this  is  I  And  what  a  gentleman* 
ly  conductor !  I  never  had  the  conductor  treat 
me  so  politely  in  my  life." 


Doing  the   Hague.  119 

Difference  between  Rollo's  sight  and  Mrs.  Parkniau's. 

Mrs.  Parkman  was  put  in  excellent  humor  by 
this  incident,  and  she  said,  towards  the  end  of 
the  journey,  that  she  should  have  had  a  delight- 
ful ride  if  the  country  had  not  been  so  flat  and 
uninteresting.  To  Mr.  George  and  Rollo,  who 
sat  at  the  other  window,  it  appeared  extremely 
interesting,  there  was  so  much  that  was  curious 
and  novel  to  be  seen.  The  immense  green  fields, 
with  herds  of  cattle  and  flocks  of  sheep  feeding 
every  ^iiere,  and  separated  from  each  other  by 
straight  and  narrow  canals  instead  of  fences  ; 
the  boats  passing  to  and  fro,  loaded  with  produce  ; 
the  little  bridges  built  over  these  canals  here  and 
there,  for  the  foot  paths,  with  the  gates  across 
them  to  keep  the  cattle  from  going  over  ;  the 
long  road  ways  raised  upon  dikes,  and  bordered 
by  quadruple  rows  of  ancient  and  venerable 
trees,  stretching  to  a  boundless  distance  across 
the  plains  ;  and  now  and  then  a  wide  canal,  with 
large  boats  or  vessels  passing  to  and  fro,  —  these 
and  a  multitude  of  other  such  sights,  to  be  seen 
in  no  other  country  in  the  world,  occupied  their 
attention  all  the  time,  and  kept  them  constantly 
amused. 

At  length  the  train  arrived  at  the  station  for 
the  Hague,  and  the  whole  party  descended  from 
the  carriage. 

"Now,  William,"  said  Mr.  George,  "give  me 


120  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Mr.  George  takes  command  of  the  party. 

the  ticket  for  your  trunk,  and  you  yourself  take 
Mrs.  Parkman  into  the  waiting  room  and  wait 
till  I  come." 

"No,"  said  Mr.  Parkman,  "I  cannot  let  you 
take  that  trouble." 

"  Certainly,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  You  said 
that  I  should  have  the  entire  command.  Give 
me  the  ticket." 

So  Mr.  Parkman  gave  him  the  ticket,  and  Mr. 
George  went  out.  Hollo  remained  with  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Parkman.  In  a  few  minutes  Mr.  George 
returned,  and  said  that  the  carriage  was  ready. 
They  all  went  to  the  door,  and  there  they  found 
a  carriage  waiting,  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman's 
trunk  upon  the  top  of  it.  A  man  was  holding 
the  door  open  for  the  party  to  get  in.  As  soon 
as  they  had  all  entered,  Mr.  George  put  a  few 
coppers  into  the  hand  of  the  man  at  the  door, 
and  said  to  him, 

"Hotel  Belview."* 

"  Hotel  Belview  ! "  shouted  the  man  to  the 
coachman.  On  hearing  this  command  the  coach- 
man drove  on. 

The  road  that  led  into  the  town  lay  along  the 
banks  of  a  canal,  and  after  going  about  half  a 

*  In  French,  Hotel  Belle  Vue  ;  but  Mr.  George  gave  it  the  Eng- 
lish pronunciation,  because  the  pronunciation  of  words  in  Holland 
is  much  more  like  the  English  than  like  the  French. 


Doing  the  Hague.  121 

The  party  arrive  at  the  Hotel  Belle  Yue. 

mile  in  this  direction,  the  horses  turned  and  went 
over  a  bridge.  They  were  now  in  the  heart  of 
the  town,  but  the  party  could  not  see  much,  foi 
the  night  was  coming  on  and  the  sky  was  cloudy. 
It  was  cold,  too,  and  Mrs.  Parkman  wished  to 
have  the  windows  closed.  The  carriage  went 
along  a  narrow  street,  crossing  bridges  occasion- 
ally, until  at  length  it  came  to  a  region  of  pal- 
aces, and  parks,  and  grounds  beautifully  orna- 
mented. Finally  it  stopped  before  a  large  and 
very  handsome  hotel.  The  hotel  stood  in  a  street 
which  had  large  and  beautiful  houses  and  gar- 
dens on  one  side,  and  an  open  park,  with  deer 
feeding  on  the  borders  of  a  canal,  on  the  other. 

Two  or  three  very  nicely  dressed  servants 
came  out  when  the  carriage  stopped,  and  opened 
the  door  of  it  in  a  very  assiduous  and  deferential 
manner. 

11  Wait  here  in  the  carriage,"  said  Mr.  George, 
"till  I  come." 

So  saying,  he  himself  descended  from  the  car- 
riage, and  went  into  the  house,  followed  by  two 
of  the  waiters  that  had  come  to  the  door. 

In  about  two  minutes  he  came  out  again. 

"  Yes,"  said  he  to  Mrs.  Parkman,  "  I  think  you 
will  like  the  rooms." 

So  saying,  he  helped  Mrs.  Parkman  out  of  the 
carriage,  and  gave  her  his  arm  to  conduct  her 


122  Rollo   in   Holland. 

The  travellers  escorted  to  the  hotel  parlor. 

into  the  house.  At  the  same  time  he  said  to  one 
of  the  waiters,  — 

"  See  that  every  thing  is  taken  out  of  the  car- 
riage, and  pay  the  coachman." 

"  Very  well,  sir,"  said  the  waiter. 

Mr.  George  led  Mrs.  Parkman  up  a  broad  and 
handsome  staircase.  He  was  preceded  by  one 
waiter  and  followed  by  two  others.  These  wait- 
ers had  taken  every  thing  from  the  hands  of  the 
party,  especially  from  Mrs.  Parkman,  so  that 
they  were  loaded  with  bags,  cloaks,  and  umbrel- 
las, while  the  travellers  themselves  had  nothing 
to  carry. 

At  the  head  of  the  staircase  the  waiter,  who 
was  in  advance,  opened  a  door  which  led  to  a 
large  drawing  room  or  parlor,  which  was  very 
handsomely  decorated  and  furnished.  The  win- 
dows were  large,  and  they  looked  out  upon  a 
handsome  garden,  though  it  was  now  too  dark  to 
see  it  very  distinctly. 

As  Mrs.  Parkman  turned  round  again,  after 
trying  to  look  out  at  the  window,  she  saw  a  sec- 
ond waiter  coming  into  the  room,  bringing  with 
him  two  tall  wax  candles  in  silver  candlesticks. 
The  candles  had  just  been  lighted.  The  waiter 
placed  them  on  the  table,  and  then  retired. 

"And  now,"  said  Mr.  George  to  the  other 
waiter,  "  we  want  a  good  fire  made  here,  and 
then  let  us  have  dinner  as  soon  as  you  c^n." 


Doing  the  Hague.  125 

The  bedrooms.  Single  beds  instead  of  double  beds. 

"  Very  well,  sir,"  replied  the  waiter  ;  and  so 
saying  he  bowed  respectfully  and  retired. 

A  neatly-dressed  young  woman,  in  a  very  pic- 
turesque and  pretty  cap,  had  come  into  the  room 
with  the  party,  and  while  Mr.  George  had  been 
ordering  the  fire  and  the  dinner,  she  had  shown 
Mrs.  Parkman  to  her  bedroom,  which  was  a 
beautiful  and  richly  furnished  room  with  two 
single  beds  in  it,  opening  out  of  the  parlor.  On 
the  other  side  of  the  parlor  was  another  bed- 
room, also  with  two  beds  in  it,  for  Mr.  George 
and  Rollo.* 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman  remained  in  their  room 
for  a  time,  and  when  they  came  out  they  found 
the  table  set  for  dinner,  and  a  very  pleasant  fire 
burning  in  the  grate. 

"  Mr.  George,"  said  she,  "  I  wish  we  had  you 
to  make  arrangements  for  us  all  the  time." 

"  It  would  be  a  very  pleasant  duty,"  said  Mr. 
George.     "  You  are  so  easily  satisfied." 

Mrs.  Parkman  seemed  much  pleased  with  this 
compliment.  She  did  not  for  a  moment  doubt 
that  she  fully  deserved  it. 

About  eight  o'clock  that  evening,  Mr.  George 

•  Almost  all  the  bedrooms  in  the  hotels  on  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope are  furnished  thus  with  two  single  beds,  instead  of  one  double 
P~\e.    It  is  the  custom  for  every  body  to  sleep  alone 


126  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Mr.  George  makes  arrangements  for  doing  the  Hague. 

asked  Mrs,  Parkman  at  what  time  she  would  like 
to  have  breakfast  the  next  morning. 

"At  any  time  you  please,"  said  she  ;  "  that  is, 
if  it  is  not  too  early." 

"  How  would  half  past  nine  do  ? "  asked  Mr. 
George. 

"  I  think  that  will  do  very  well,"  said  Mrs. 
Parkman. 

"  We  will  say  ten,  if  you  prefer,"  said  Mr. 
George. 

"0,  no,"  said  she,  "half  past  nine  will  do 
very  well." 

So  Mr.  George  rang  the  bell,  and  when  the 
waiter  came,  he  ordered  a  sumptuous  breakfast, 
consisting  of  beefsteaks,  hot  rolls,  coffee,  omelet, 
and  every  thing  else  that  he  could  think  of  that 
was  good,  and  directed  the  waiter  to  have  it 
ready  at  half  past  nine. 

"  I  shall  also  want  a  carriage  and  a  pair  of 
norses  to-morrow,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "and 
a  commissioner." 

"Very  well,  sir,"  said  the  waiter  ;  "and  what 
time  shall  you  wish  for  the  carriage  ?  " 

"What  time,  Mrs.  Parkman?"  repeated  Mr. 
George,  turning  to  the  lady.  "Shall  you  be 
ready  by  half  past  ten  to  go  out  and  see  the 
town  ?  " 


Dot nci  the   Hague.  127 


The  scone  at  the  breakfast  table. 


"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Parkman,  "  that  will  be  a 
very  good  time." 

"  Very  well,  sir,"  said  the  waiter ;  and  he 
1  owed  and  retired. 

The  next  morning,  when  the  different  members 
of  the  party  came  oat  into  the  breakfast  room, 
they  found  the  table  set  for  breakfast.  At  half 
past  nine  all  were  ready  except  Mrs.  Parkman. 
She  sent  word  by  her  husband  that  she  would 
come  out  in  a  few  minutes. 

"  There  is  no  hurry,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  It 
will  be  time  enough  to  have  breakfast  when  she 
comes." 

In  about  fifteen  minutes  she  came.  Mr.  George 
asked  her  very  politely  how  she  had  spent  the 
night  ;  and  after  she  had  sat  a  few  minutes  talk- 
ing by  the  fire,  he  said  that  they  would  have 
oreakfast  whenever  she  wished. 

" Yes,"  said  she,  "I  am  ready  any  time.  In- 
deed, I  was  afraid  that  I  should  be  late,  and  keep 
you  waiting.    I  am  very  glad  that  I  am  in  season." 

So  Mr.  George  rang  the  bell ;  when  the  wait- 
er came,  he  ordered  breakfast  to  be  brought  up. 

While  the  party  were  at  breakfast,  a  very  nice- 
ly-dressed waiter,  with  a  white  napkin  over  his 
arm,  stood  behind  Mrs.  Parkman7s  chair,  and 
evinced  a  great  deal  of  alertness  and  alacrity  in 
offering  her  every  thing  that  she  required.    When 


128  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Mr.  George  questions  the  commissioner  about  places  to  be  seen. 

the  breakfast  was  nearly  finished,  Mr.  George 
turned  to  him  and  said,  — 

"  Is  the  commissioner  ready,  John,  who  is  to 
go  with  us  to-day  ?  " 

11  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  waiter. 

"  I  wish  you  to  go  down  and  send  him  up,"  said 
Mr.  George. 

So  the  waiter  went  down  stairs  to  find  the 
commissioner,  and  while  he  was  gone  Mr.  George 
took  out  a  pencil  and  paper  from  his  pocket. 

"  I  am  going  to  ask  him,"  said  Mr.  George  to 
Mrs.  Parkman,  "  what  there  is  to  be  seen  here, 
and  to  make  a  list  of  the  places  ;  and  then  we  will 
go  and  see  them  all,  or  you  can  make  a  selection, 
just  as  you  please." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mrs.  Parkman.  "  I  should 
like  that." 

Accordingly,  when  the  commissioner  came  in, 
Mr.  George  asked  him  to  name,  in  succession, 
the  various  objects  of  interest  usually  visited 
by  travellers  coming  to  the  Hague  ;  and  as  he 
named  them,  Mr.  George  questioned  him  re- 
specting them,  so  as  to  enable  Mrs.  Parkman  to 
obtain  a  somewhat  definite  idea  of  what  they 
were.  The  commissioner  enumerated  a  variety 
of  places  to  be  seen,  such  as  the  public  museum 
of  painting,  several  private  museums,  the  old 
palace,  the  new  palace,  two  or  three  churches, 


Doing  the  Hague.  129 

The  list  of  sights.  The  watering  place. 

the  town  hall,  and  various  other  sights  which 
tourists,  arriving  at  the  Hague,  usually  like  to 
view.  Mr.  George  made  a  list  of  all  these,  and 
opposite  to  each  he  marked  the  time  which  the 
commissioner  said  would  be  required  to  see  it 
well.     After  completing  this  list,  he  said,  — 

"  And  there  is  a  great  watering  place  on  the 
sea  shore,  not  far  from  this,  I  believe." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  commissioner,  "  about 
three  miles." 

"Is  it  a  pleasant  ride  there?"  asked  Mi- 
George. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  replied  the  commissioner.  "  It  is 
a  very  pleasant  ride.  You  can  go  one  way  and 
return  another.  It  is  a  very  fashionable  place. 
The  queen  and  the  princesses  go  there  every 
summer." 

"  Very  well  ;  it  takes  about  two  hours  and  a 
half,  I  suppose,  to  go  there  and  return,"  said  Mr. 
George. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  commissioner. 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George.     "Have  the 

carriage  ready  in Shall  we  say  half  an 

-hour,  Mrs.  Parkman  ?     Shall   you  be  ready  in 
half  an  hour  ?  " 

Mrs.  Parkman  said  that  she  should  be  ready 
in  half  an  hour,  and  so  Mr.  George  appointed 
that  time,  and  then  the  commissioner  went  away. 
9 


130  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Paying  the  bill.  A  question  between  Mr.  Parkman  and  Mr.  George. 

Mr.  George  added  up  all  the  periods  of  time 
that  the  commissioner  had  said  would  be  re» 
quired  for  the  several  sights,  and  found  that 
there  would  be  time  for  them  to  see  the  whole, 
and  yet  be  ready  for  the  afternoon  train  for  Am- 
sterdam, where  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman  were 
going  next.  So  Mrs.  Parkman  concluded  not  to 
omit  any  from  the  list,  but  to  go  and  see  the 
whole. 

In  half  an  hour  the  carriage  was  at  the  door, 
and  in  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  afterwards  Mrs. 
Parkman  was  ready.  Just  before  they  went, 
Mr.  George  rang  the  bell  again,  and  called  for 
the  bill,  requesting  the  waiter  to  see  that  every 
thing  was  charged  —  carriage,  servants,  commis- 
sioner, and  all.  When  it  came,  Mr.  Parkman 
took  out  his  purse,  expecting  to  pay  it  himself, 
but  Mr.  George  took  out  his  purse  too. 

"  The  amount,"  said  Mr.  George,  looking  at 
the  footing  of  the  bill,  "  is  forty-five  guilders  and 
some  cents.  Your  share  is,  say  twenty-two  guil- 
ders and  a  half." 

"  No,  indeed,"  said  Mr.  Parkman.  "  My  share 
is  the  exact  footing  of  the  bill.  You  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  this  payment." 

"  Yes."  said  Mr.  George.  "  I  have  just  one 
naif  to  pay  for  Rollo  and  me.  We  are  four  in 
all,  and  Rollo  and  I  are  two." 


Doing  the  Hague.  131 

Mr.  George's  politeness  to  Mrs.  Parkman.  Her  curiosity. 

Mr.  Parkman  seemed  extremely  unwilling  to 
allow  Mr.  George  to  pay  any  thing  at  all  ;  but 
Mr.  George  insisted  upon  it,  and  so  the  bill  was 
paid  by  a  joint  contribution. 

All  this  time  the  carriage  was  ready  at  the 
door,  and  the  gentlemen,  attended  by  two  or 
three  waiters,  conducted  Mrs.  Parkman  down  to 
the  door.  The  party  then  drove,  in  succession, 
to  the  various  places  which  the  commissioner  had 
enumerated.  There  were  museums  consisting  of 
a  great  many  rooms  filled  with  paintings,  and 
palaces,  where  they  were  shown  up  grand  stair- 
cases, and  through  long  corridors,  and  into  suites 
of  elegant  apartments,  and  churches,  and  beau- 
tiful parks  and  gardens,  and  a  bazaar  filled  with 
curiosities  from  China  and  Japan,  and  a  great 
many  other  similar  places.  Mr.  George  paid 
very  particular  attention  to  Mrs.  Parkman  dur- 
ing the  whole  time,  and  made  every  effort  to  an- 
ticipate and  comply  with  her  wishes  in  all  respects. 
In  one  case,  indeed,  I  think  he  went  too  far  in 
this  compliance,  and  the  result  was  to  mortify  her 
not  a  little.  It  was  in  one  of  the  museums  of 
paintings.  Mrs.  Parkman,  like  other  ladies  of  a 
similar  character  to  hers,  always  wanted  to  go 
where  she  could  not  go,  and  to  see  what  she 
could  not  see.  If,  when  she  came  into  a  town, 
she  heard  of  any  place  to  which,  for  any  reason, 


132  Bollo  in  Holland. 

A  disagreeable  trait.  The  closed  door. 

it  was  difficult  to  obtain  admission,  that  was  the 
very  place  of  all  others  that  she  wished  most 
to  see  ;  and  if,  in  any  museum,  or  palace,  or  li- 
brary that  she  went  into,  there  were  two  doors 
open  and  one  shut,  she  would  neglect  the  open 
ones,  and  make  directly  to  the  one  that  was  shut, 
and  ask  to  know  what  there  was  there.  I  do  not 
know  as  there  was  any  thing  particularly  blame- 
worthy in  this.  On  the  contrary,  such  a  feeling 
may  be  considered,  in  some  respects,  a  very  nat- 
ural one  in  a  lady.  But,  nevertheless,  when  it 
manifests  itself  in  a  decided  form,  it  makes  the 
lady  a  very  uncomfortable  and  vexatious  com- 
panion to  the  gentleman  who  has  her  under  his 
care. 

In  one  of  the  rooms  where  our  party  went  in 
the  museum  of  paintings,  there  was  a  door  near 
one  corner  that  was  shut.  All  the  other  doors 
—  those  which  communicated  with  the  several 
apartments  where  the  pictures  were  hung  —  were 
open.  As  soon  as  Mrs.  Parkman  came  in  sight 
of  the  closed  door,  she  pointed  to  it  and 
said,  — 

"  I  wonder  what  there  is  in  that  room.  I  sup- 
pose it  is  something  very  choice.  I  wish  we 
could  get  in." 

Mr.  Parkman  paid,  at  first,  no  attention  to  this 
request,  but  continued  to  look  at  the  pictures 
around  him. 


Doing  the   Hague.  183 

Mr.  George  sets  a  trap  for  Mrs.  Parkman. 

"  I  wish  you  would  ask  some  of  the  attendants/' 
Bhe  continued,  "  whether  we  cannot  go  into  that 
room." 

"  0,  no,"  replied  her  husband.  "  If  it  was  any 
thing  that  it  was  intended  we  should  see,  the 
door  would  be  open.  The  fact  that  the  door  is 
shut  is  notice  enough  that  we  are  not  to  go  in 
there." 

"  I'm  convinced  there  are  some  choice  pic- 
tures in  there,"  said  Mrs.  Parkman  ;  "  something 
that  they  do  not  show  to  every  body.  Mr. 
George,  I  wish  you  would  see  if  you  can't  find 
out  some  way  to  get  in." 

"  Certainly,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  I  will  try." 

So  Mr.  George  walked  along  towards  one  of 
the  attendants,  whom  he  saw  in  another  part  of 
the  room,  —  putting  his  hand  in  his  pocket  as  he 
went,  to  feel  for  a  piece  of  money.  He  put  the 
piece  of  money  into  the  attendant's  hand,  and 
then  began  to  talk  with  him,  asking  various  in- 
different questions  about  the  building  ;  and  final- 
ly he  asked  him  where  that  closed  door  led  to* 

"  0,  that  is  only  a  closet,"  said  the  attendant, 
"  where  we  keep  our  brooms  and  dusters." 

"  I  wish  you  would  just  let  us  look  into  it," 
said  Mr.  George.  "Here's  half  a  guilder  for 
you." 

The  man  looked  a  little  surprised,  but  he  took 
the  half  guilder,  saying,  — 


134  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Mrs.  Parkman  learns  a  lesson.  The  drive  continued. 

"  Certainly,  if  it  will  afford  you  any  satisfao 
tion." 

Mr.  George  then  went  back  to  where  he  had 
left  the  rest  of  his  party,  and  said  to  Mrs.  Park- 
man, — 

"  This  man  is  going  to  admit  us  to  that  room. 
Follow  him.     I  will  come  in  a  moment." 

So  Mr.  George  stopped  to  look  at  a  large 
painting  on  the  wall,  while  Mrs.  Parkman,  with 
high  anticipations  of  the  pleasure  she  was  to 
enjoy  in  seeing  what  people  in  general  were  ex» 
eluded  from,  walked  in  a  proud  and  stately  man- 
ner to  the  door,  and  when  the  man  opened  it,  saw 
only  a  small,  dark  room,  with  nothing  in  it  but 
brooms,  dust  pans,  and  lamp  fillers.  She  was  ex- 
ceedingly abashed  by  this  adventure,  and  for  the 
rest  of  that  day  she  did  not  once  ask  to  see  any 
thing  that  was  not  voluntarily  shown  to  her. 

After  visiting  all  the  places  of  note  in  the 
town,  the  coachman  was  ordered  to  drive  to  the 
watering  place  on  the  sea  shore.  It  was  a  very 
pleasant  drive  of  about  three  miles.  Just  before 
reaching  the  shore  of  the  sea,  the  road  came  to  a 
region  of  sand  hills,  called  dunes,  formed  by  the 
drifting  sands  blown  in  from  the  beach  by  the 
winds.  Among  these  dunes,  and  close  to  the  sea 
shore,  was  an  immense  hotel,  with  long  wings 
stretching  a  hundred  feet  on  each  side,  and  a  row 


Doing  the  Hague.  135 

A  description  of  the  bathing  place  near  the  Hague. 

of  bath  vans  on  the  margin  of  the  beach  before 
it.  The  beach  was  low  and  shelving,  and  it  could 
be  traced  for  miles  in  either  direction  along  the 
coast,  whitened  by  the  surf  that  was  rolling  in 
from  the  German  Ocean. 

After  looking  at  this  prospect  for  a  time,  and 
watching  to  see  one  or  two  of  the  bathing  vans 
drive  down  into  the  surf,  in  order  to  allow  ladies 
who  had  got  into  them  to  bathe,  the  party  re- 
turned to  the  carriage,  and  the  coachman  drove 
them  through  the  village,  which  was  very  quaint 
and  queer,  and  inhabited  by  fishermen.  The  fish- 
ing boats  were  drawn  up  on  the  shore  in  great 
numbers,  very  near  the  houses.  Rollo  desired 
very  much  to  go  and  see  these  boats  and  the  fisher- 
men, and  learn,  if  he  could,  what  kind  of  fish  they 
caught  in  them,  and  how  they  caught  them.  But 
Mrs.  Parkman  thought  that  they  had  better  not 
stop.  They  were  nothing  but  common  fishing 
boats,  she  said. 

The  carriage  returned  to  the  Hague  by  a  dif- 
ferent road  from  the  one  in  which  it  came.  It 
was  a  road  that  led  through  a  beautiful  wood, 
where  there  were  many  pleasant  walks,  with  cu- 
rious looking  Dutch  women  going  and  coming. 
As  the  party  approached  the  town,  thcj  passed 
through  a  region  of  parks,  and  palaces,  and  splen- 
did mansions  of  all  kinds.     Mrs.  Parkman  was 


186  Kollo  in  Holland. 

Trying  to  converse  with  a  Dutch  coachman.  Parting. 

curious  to  know  who  lived  in  each  house,  and  Mr. 
George  contrived  to  communicate  her  inquiries 
to  the  coachman,  by  making  signs,  and  by  asking 
questions  partly  in  English  and  partly  in  Ger- 
man. But  though  the  coachman  understood  the 
questions,  Mrs.  Parkman  could  not  understand 
the  answers  that  he  gave,  for  they  were  Dutch 
names,  —  sometimes  long  and  sometimes  short  ; 
but  whether  they  were  long  or  short,  the  sounds 
were  so  uncouth  and  strange  that  Mrs.  Parkman 
looked  terribly  distressed  in  trying  to  make  them 
out. 

At  length  the  carriage  arrived  at  the  hotel 
again ;  and  there  the  porters  put  on  the  baggage 
belonging  both  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman,  and 
to  Mr.  George  and  Rollo.  It  then  proceeded 
to  the  station.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  waited 
there  until  the  train  for  Amsterdam  arrived,  and 
then  took  leave  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parkman  as 
they  went  to  their  seats  in  the  carriage.  Mrs. 
Parkman  shook  hands  with  Mr.  George  very  cor- 
dially, and  said,  — 

"  We  are  very  much  obliged  to  you,  Mr.  George, 
for  your  company  to-day.  We  ha  ^e  had  a  very 
pleasant  time.  I  wish  that  we  com.'  have  you  to 
travel  with  us  all  the  time." 

"  I  think  she  ought  to  be  obliged  to  you,"  said 
Rollo,  as  soon  as  the  train  had  gone. 


Doing  the  Hague 


137 


The  reason  of  Mr.  George's  kindness. 


"  Not  at  all,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"Not  at  all?"  repeated  Rollo.  "Why  not? 
Yen  have  done  a  great  deal  for  her  to-day." 

"  No,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  All  that  I  have 
done  has  not  been  for  her  sake,  but  for  William's. 
William  is  an  excellent  good  friend  of  mine,  and 
I  am  very  sorry  that  he  has  not  got  a  mor<3 
agreeable  travelling  companion." 


138  Rollo   in  Holland. 


"he  rainy  day  in  Leyden.  Letter  writing. 


Chapter  VII. 
Correspondence. 

One  day,  when  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  were  at 
the  town  of  Leyden,  it  began  to  rain  while  they 
were  eating  their  breakfast. 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Rollo.  "  We  can  walk 
about  the  town  if  it  does  rain." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  we  can  ;  but  we 
shall  get  tired  of  walking  about  much  sooner  if  it 
rains,  than  if  it  were  pleasant  weather.  How- 
ever, I  am  not  very  sorry,  for  I  should  like  to 
write  some  letters." 

"  I've  a  great  mind  to  write  a  letter,  too,"  said 
Rollo.  "  I'll  write  to  my  mother.  Don't  you 
think  that  would  be  a  good  plan?" 

"  Why,  —  I  don't  know,"  —  said  Mr.  George, 
speaking  in  rather  a  doubtful  tone.  "  It  seems  to 
me  that  it  would  be  hardly  worth  while." 

"  Why  not  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"Why,  the  postage  is  considerable,"  said  Mr. 
George,  "and  I  don't  believe  the  letter  would  be 
worth  what  your  father  would  have  to  pay  for  it ; 


Correspondence.  139 

Sir.  George's  description  of  a  boy's  letter. 

that  is,  if  it  is  such  a  letter  as  I  suppose  you 
would  write." 

"  Why,  what  sort  of  a  letter  do  you  suppose  I 
should  write  ?  "  asked  Hollo. 

"  0,  you  would  do  as  boys  generally  do  in  such 
cases,"  replied  his  uncle.  "  In  the  first  place  you 
would  want  to  take  the  biggest  sheet  that  you 
eould  find  to  write  the  letter  upon.  Then  you 
would  take  up  as  much  of  the  space  as  possible 
writing  the  date,  and  My  dear  mother.  Then  you 
would  go  on  for  a  few  lines,  saying  things  of  no 
interest  to  any  body,  such  as  telling  what  day  you 
came  to  this  place,  and  what  day  to  that.  Per- 
haps you'd  say  that  to-day  is  a  rainy  day,  and  that 
yesterday  was  pleasant  — just  as  if  your  mother, 
when  she  gets  your  letter,  would  care  any  thing 
about  knowing  what  particular  days  were  rainy 
and  what  pleasant,  in  Holland,  a  week  back. 
Then,  after  you  had  got  about  two  thirds  down 
the  page,  you  would  stop  because  you  could  not 
think  of  any  thing  more  to  say,  and  subscribe 
your  name  with  ever  so  many  scrawl  flourishes^ 
and  as  many  affectionate  and  dutiful  phrases  as 
you  could  get  to  fill  up  the  space. 

"  And  that  would  be  a  letter  that  your  father, 
like  as  not,  would  have  to  pay  one  and  sixpence 
or  two  shillings  sterling  for,  to  the  London  post- 


140  Rollo  in  Holland. 

A  resolution.  Keeping  warm  by  foot  stoves.  I'pat  fires. 

Rollo  laughed  at  this  description  of  the  prob- 
able result  of  his  proposed  attempt  to  write  a  let- 
ter ;  but  he  laughed  rather  faintly,  for  he  well 
recollected  how  many  times  he  had  written  let- 
ters in  just  such  a  way.  He  secretly  resolved, 
however,  that  when  they  came  in  from  their  walk, 
and  Mr.  George  sat  down  to  his  writing,  he  would 
write  too,  and  would  see  whether  he  could  not, 
for  once,  produce  a  letter  that  should  be  at  least 
worth  the  postage. 

After  they  came  in  from  their  walk,  they  asked 
the  landlady  to  have  a  fire  made  in  their  room ; 
but  she  said  they  could  not  have  any  fire,  for  the 
stoves  were  not  put  up.  She  said  it  was  the  cus- 
tom in  Holland  not  to  put  the  stoves  up  until 
October  ;  and  so  nobody  could  have  a  fire  in  any 
thing  but  foot  stoves  until  that  time.  The  foot 
stoves,  she  said,  would  make  it  very  comfortable 
for  them. 

So  she  brought  in  two  foot  stoves.  They  con- 
sisted of  small,  square  boxes,  with  holes  bored  in 
the  top,  and  a  little  fire  of  peat  in  an  earthen  ves- 
sel within.  Rollo  asked  Mr.  George  to  give  hiin 
two  sheets  of  thin  note  paper,  and  he  established 
himself  at  a  window  that  looked  out  upon  a  ca- 
nal. He  intended  to  amuse  himself  in  the  inter- 
vals of  his  writing  in  watching  the  boats  that 
were  passing  along  the  cannh 


Correspondence.  141 

Why  Rollo  chose  note  paper.  Perseverance. 

He  took  two  sheets  of  note  paper  instead  of 
one  sheet  of  letter  paper,  in  order  that,  if  he 
should  get  tired  after  filling  one  of  them,  he  could 
stop,  and  so  send  what  he  had  written,  without 
causing  his  father  to  pay  postage  on  any  useless 
paper. 

"  Then/-  thought  he,  "  if  I  do  not  get  tired,  I 
will  go  on  and  fill  the  second  sheet,  and  my  moth- 
er will  have  a  double  small  letter.  A  double 
small  letter  will  be  just  as  good  as  a  single  large 
one." 

This  was  an  excellent  plan. 

Rollo  also  took  great  pains  to  guard  against 
another  fault  which  boys  often  fall  into  in  writing 
their  letters  ;  that  is,  the  fault  of  growing  careless 
about  the  writing  as  they  go  on  with  the  work, 
by  which  means  a  letter  is  produced  which  looks 
very  neat  and  pretty  at  the  beginning,  but  be- 
comes an  ill-looking  and  almost  illegible  scrawl 
at  the  end. 

"  I'll  begin,"  said  he,  "  as  I  think  I  shall  be 
able  to  hold  out  ;  and  I'll  hold  out  to  the  end 
just  as  I  begin." 

Rollo  remained  over  his  letter  more  than  three 
hours.  He  would  have  become  exceedingly  tired 
with  the  work  if  he  had  written  continuously  all 
this  time  ;  but  he  stopped  to  rest  very  often,  and 
to  amuse  himself  with  observing  what  was  pass- 
ing before  him  in  the  street  and  on  the  canal- 


142  Rollo  in  Holland 


The  letters  finished.  Mr.  George's  to  Edward. 

Mr.  George  was  occupied  all  this  time  in  writ- 
ing Ms  letter,  and  each  read  what  he  had  written 
to  the  other  that  same  evening,  after  dinner.  The 
two  letters  were  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.    George's  Letter. 

"Leyden,  Holland,  September  27. 

"  My  Dear  Edward  :  * 

"  We  have  been  travelling  now  for  several 
days  in  Holland,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  curi- 
ous and  amusing  countries  to  travel  in  that  I 
have  ever  seen. 

"  We  all  know  from  the  books  of  geography 
which  we  study  at  school,  that  Holland  is  a  very 
low  country  —  lower  in  many  places  than  the 
ocean  ;  and  that  the  water  of  the  ocean  is  kept 
from  overflowing  it  by  dikes,  which  the  people 
built  ages  ago,  along  the  shores.  I  always  used 
to  suppose  that  it  was  only  from  the  sea  that  peo- 
ple had  any  danger  to  fear  of  inundations  j  but  J 
find  now  that  it  is  not  so. 

"The  people  have  to  defend  themselves  from 
inundations,  not  only  on  the  side  towards  the  sea, 
out  also  quite  as  much,  if  not  more,  on  the  side 
towards  the  land,  from  the  waters  of  the  River 


*  Edward  was  Mr.  George's  brother       He  was  a  toy  about 
twelve  years  old. 


Correspondence.  143 

Mr.  George's  account  of  the  Rhine  and  the  pollers. 

Rhine.  The  River  Rhine  rises  in  Switzerland, 
and  flows  through  various  countries  of  Eiirooe 
until  it  conies  to  the  borders  of  Holland,  and 
there  it  spreads  out  into  innumerable  branches, 
and  runs  every  where,  all  over  the  country.  It 
would  often  overflow  the  country  entirely,  were 
it  not  that  the  banks  are  guarded  by  dikes,  like 
the  dikes  of  the  sea.  The  various  branches  of 
the  rivers  are  connected  together  by  canals,  which 
are  also  higher  than  the  land  on  each  side  of  them. 
Thus  the  whole  country  is  covered  with  a  great 
network  of  canals,  rivers,  and  inlets  from  the  sea, 
with  water  in  them  higher  than  the  land.  When 
the  tide  is  low  in  the  sea,  the  surplus  water  from 
these  rivers  and  canals  flows  off  through  immense 
sluices  at  the  mouth  of  them.  When  the  tide 
comes  up,  it  is  kept  from  flowing  in  by  immense 
gates,  with  which  the  sluices  are  closed.  They 
call  the  tracts  of  land  that  lie  lower  than  the 
channels  of  water  around  them,  polders.  That  is 
rather  a  queer  name.  I  suppose  it  is  a  Dutch  name. 
"  The  polders  all  have  drains  and  canals  cut  in 
them.  As  we  ride  along  in  the  railway  carriages 
we  overlook  these  polders.  They  look  like  im- 
mense green  fields,  extending  as  far  as  you  can 
eee,  with  straight  canals  running  through  them  in 
everj?  direction,  and  crossing  each  other  at  right 
angles.     These  canals,  in  the  bottom  of  the  pol- 


144  Hollo  in   Holland. 

Canals  used  for  fences  and  roads.  The  wind  mills 

ders,  are  about  six  feet  wide.  They  are  wide 
enough  to  prevent  the  cattle  from  jumping  across 
them,  and  so  they  serve  for  fences  to  divide  the 
Gelds  from  each  other.  They  also  serve  for  roads, 
for  the  Dutchmen  use  boats  on  their  farms  to  get 
in  their  hay  and  produce,  instead  of  carts. 

"  The  water  that  collects  in  these  low  canals 
and  drains,  which  run  across  the  polders,  cannot 
flow  out  into  the  large  canals,  which  are  higher 
than  they  are,  and  so  they  have  to  pump  it  out. 
They  pump  it  out  generally  by  means  of  wind 
mills.  So  wherever  you  go,  throughout  all  Hol- 
land, you  find  an  immense  number  of  wind  mills. 
These  wind  mills  are  very  curious  indeed.  Some 
of  them  are  immensely  large.  They  look  like 
lighthouses.  The  large  ones  are  generally  built 
of  brick,  and  some  of  them  are  several  hundred 
years  old.  The  sails  of  the  big  ones  are  often 
fifty  feet  long,  and  sometimes  eighty  feet.  This 
makes  a  wheel  one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  in  di- 
ameter. When  you  stand  under  one  of  these 
mills,  and  look  up,  and  see  these  immense  sails 
revolving  so  high  in  the  air  that  the  lowest  point, 
when  the  sail  comes  round,  is  higher  than  the 
tops  of  the  four  story  houses,  the  effect  is  quite 
Eublime. 

"  With  these  wind  mills  they  pump  the  water 
up  from  one  drain  or  canal  to  another,  till  they 


Correspondence.  145 

The  River  Amstcl.  Dangers  of  an  inundation. 

get  it  high  enough  to  run  off  into  the  sea.  In 
dome  place?,  however,  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  the 
water  into  the  sea  even  in  this  way,  even  at  low 
tides.  The  River  Amstel,  for  instance,  which 
comes  out  at  Amsterdam,  and  into  which  a  great 
many  canals  and  channels  are  pumped,  is  so  low 
at  its  mouth  that  the  sea  is  never,  at  the  lowest 
tides,  more  than  a  foot  and  a  half  below  it.  At 
nigh  tides  the  sea  is  a  great  deal  above  it.  The 
average  is  about  a  foot  above.  Of  course  it  re- 
quires a  great  deal  of  management  to  get  the  wa- 
ters of  the  river  out,  and  avoid  letting  the  water 
of  the  sea  in.  They  do  it  by  immense  sluices, 
which  are  generally  kept  shut,  and  only  opened 
when  the  tide  is  low. 

"  In  the  mean  time,  if  it  should  ever  so  happen 
that  they  could  not  succeed  in  letting  the  water 
out  fast  enough,  it  would,  of  course,  accumulate, 
and  rise  in  the  rivers,  and  press  against  the  dikes 
that  run  along  the  banks  of  it,  till  at  last  it  would 
break  through  in  some  weak  place ;  and  then,  un- 
less the  people  could  stop  the  breach,  the  whole 
polder  on  that  side  would  be  gradually  over- 
flowed. The  inundation  would  extend  until  it 
came  to  some  other  dike  to  stop  it.  The  polder 
that  would  first  be  filled  would  become  a  lake. 
The  lake  would  be  many  miles  in  extent,  perhaps, 
but  the  water  in  it  would  not'  usually  be  very  deep 
10 


140  Rollo   in   Holland. 

Submerged  land.  Floods  and  conflagrations  compared. 

■ —  not  more  than  eight  or  ten  feet,  perhaps ; 
though  in  some  cases  the  polders  are  so  low,  that 
an  inundation  from  the  rivers  and  canals  around 
it  would  make  the  lake  twenty  or  thirty  feet  deep. 

"  Of  course,  in  ancient  times,  when  a  portion  of 
the  country  became  thus  submerged,  it  was  for  the 
people  to  consider  whether  they  would  abandon 
it  or  try  to  pump  all  that  water  out  again,  by 
means  of  the  wind  mills.  They  would  think  that 
if  they  pumped  it  out  it  would  be  some  years  be- 
fore the  land  would  be  good  again  ;  for  the  salt 
in  the  water  would  tend  to  make  it  barren.  So 
they  would  sometimes  abandon  it,  and  put  all 
their  energy  into  requisition  to  strengthen  the 
dikes  around  it,  in  order  to  prevent  the  inunda- 
tion from  spreading  any  farther.  For  water,  in 
Holland,  tends  to  spread  and  to  destroy  life  and 
property,  just  as  fire  does  in  other  countries. 
The  lakes  and  rivers,  where  they  are  higher  than 
the  land,  are  liable  to  burst  their  barriers  after 
heavy  rains  falling  in  the  country,  or  great  floods 
coming  down  the  rivers,  or  high  tides  rise  from 
the  sea,  and  so  run  into  each  other  ;  and  the  peo- 
ple have  continually  to  contend  against  this  dan* 
ger,  just  as  in  other  countries  they  do  against 
spreading  conflagrations. 

"In  the  case  of  spreading  fire,  water  is  the 
great  friend  and  helper  of  man  ;  and  in  the  cas^ 


Correspondence.  147 

What  has  become  of  the  Holland  Lake. 

of  these  spreading  inundations  of  water,  it  is  wind 
that  he  relies  upon.  The  only  mode  that  the 
Dutch  had  to  pump  out  the  water  in  former  times 
was  the  wind  mills.  When  the  rains  or  the  tides 
inundated  the  land,  they  called  upon  the  wind  to 
help  them  lift  the  water  out  to  where  it  could 
flow  away  again. 

"  There  was  a  time,  two  or  three  hundred  years 
ago,  when  all  the  wind  mills  that  the  people  could 
make,  seem  not  to  have  been  enough  to  do  the 
work  ;  and  there  was  one  place,  in  the  centre  of 
the  country,  where  the  water  continued  to  spread 
more  and  more  —  breaking  through  as  it  spread 
from  one  polder  to  another  —  until,  at  last,  it 
swallowed  up  such  an  extent  of  country  as  to  form 
a  lake  thirty  miles  in  circumference.  This  lake 
at  last  extended  very  near  to  the  gates  of  Haar- 
lem, and  it  was  called  the  Holland  Lake.  You 
will  find  it  laid  down  on  all  the  maps  of  Holland, 
except  those  which  have  been  printed  within  a 
few  years.  The  reason  why  it  is  not  laid  down 
now  is,  because,  a  few  years  ago,  finding  that  the 
wind  mills  were  not  strong  enough  to  pump  it 
out,  the  government  concluded  to  try  what  virtue 
there  might  be  in  steam.  So  they  first  repaired 
and  strengthened  the  range  of  dikes  that  extended 
round  the  lake.  In  fact,  they  made  them  double 
all  around,  leaving  a  space  between  for  a  canal. 


148  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Steam  engines  hare  accomplished  what  wind  mills  could  not. 

They  made  both  the  inner  and  outer  of  these 
dikes  water-tight ;  so  that  the  water  should  neither 
soak  back  into  the  lake  again,  after  it  was  pumped 
out,  nor  ooze  out  into  the  polders  beyond.  The 
way  they  made  them  water-tight  was  by  lining 
them  on  both  sides  with  a  good  thick  coating  of 
clay. 

"  When  the  dikes  enclosing  the  lake  were  com- 
pleted, the  engineers  set  up  three  very  powerful 
steam  engines,  and  gave  to  each  one  ten  or  twelve 
enormous  pumps  to  work.  These  pumping  en- 
gines were  made  on  such  a  grand  scale  that  they 
lifted  over  sixty  tuns  of  water  at  every  stroke. 
But  yet  so  large  was  the  lake,  and  so  vast  the 
quantity  of  water  to  be  drained,  that  though  there 
were  three  of  the  engines  working  at  this  rate, 
and  though  they  were  kept  at  work  night  and  day, 
it  took  them  a  year  and  a  half  to  lay  the  ground 
dry.  The  work  was,  however,  at  last  accom- 
plished, and  now,  what  was  the  bottom  of  the 
lake  is  all  converted  into  pastures  and  green 
fields.  But  they  still  have  to  keep  the  pumps  go- 
ing all  the  time  to  lift  out  the  surplus  water  that 
falls  over  the  whole  space  in  rain.  You  may 
judge  that  the  amount  is  very  large  that  falls  on 
a  district  thirty  miles  round.  They  calculate 
that  the  quantity  which  they  have  to  pump  up 
now,  every  year,  in  order  to  keep  the  land  from 


Correspondence.  149 

An  account  of  the  ice  freshets  in  Holland. 

being  overflowed  again,  is  over  fifty  millions  of 
tuns.  And  that  is  a  quantity  larger  than  you 
can  ever  conceive  of. 

"  And  yet  the  piece  of  ground  is  so  large,  that 
the  cost  of  this  pumping  makes  only  about  fifty 
cents  for  each  acre  of  land,  which  is  very  little. 

"  Besides  these  great  spreading  inundations, 
which  Holland  has  always  been  subject  to  from 
the  lakes  and  rivers  in  the  middle  of  the  country, 
there  has  always  been  a  greater  danger  still  to  be 
feared  from  the  ice  freshets  of  the  Rhine,  and 
other  great  rivers  coming  from  the  interior  of  the 
country.  The  Rhine,  you  know,  flows  from  south 
to  north,  and  often  the  ice,  in  the  spring,  breaks 
up  in  the  middle  of  the  course  of  the  river,  before 
it  gets  thawed  in  Holland.  The  broken  ice,  in 
coming  down  the  stream  towards  the  north,  is 
kept  within  the  banks  of  the  stream  where  the 
banks  arc  high  ;  but  when  it  reaches  Holland  it  is 
not  only  no  longer  so  confined,  but  it  finds  its 
flow  obstructed  by  the  ice  which  there  still  re- 
mains solid,  and  so  it  gets  jammed  and  forms 
dams,  and  that  makes  the  water  rise  very  fast. 
At  one  time  when  such  a  dam  was  formed,  the 
water  rose  seven  feet  in  an  hour.  At  such  times 
the  pressure  becomes  so  prodigious  that  the  dikes 
along  the  bank  of  the  river  are  burst,  and  water, 
sand,  gravel,  and  ice,  all  pour  over  together  upon 


150  Rollo   in   Holland. 

Terrible  disasters.  Rollo  reads  his  letter. 

the  surrounding  country,  and  overwhelm  and  de- 
stroy every  thing  that  comes  in  its  way. 

"  Some  of  the  inundations  caused  in  Holland 
by  these  floods  and  freshets  have  been  terrible. 
Ie  ancient  times  they  were  wrorse  than  they  are 
now ;  because  now  the  dikes  are  stronger,  and 
are  better  guarded.  At  one  inundation  that  oc- 
curred about  sixty  years  ago,  eighty  thousand 
persons  were  drowned.  At  another,  three  hun- 
dred years  earlier,  one  hundred  thousand  perished. 
Think  what  awful  floods  there  must  have  been. 

"  But  I  cannot  write  any  more  in  this  letter. 
I  have  taken  up  so  much  space  and  time  in  tell- 
ing you  about  the  inundations  and  freshets,  that 
I  have  not  time  to  describe  a  great  many  other 
things  which  I  have  seen,  that  are  quite  as  cu- 
rious and  remarkable  as  they.  But  when  I  get 
home  I  can  tell  you  all  about  them,  in  the  winter 
evenings,  and  read  to  you  about  them  from  my 
'ournal. 

"  Your  affectionate  brother, 

"  George.'* 

Hollo's  Letter. 

"Leyden,  Tuesday,  September  27. 

*  My  dear  Mother  : 

"  Uncle  George  and  I  are  having  a  very  fiive 
tink  indeed  in  travelling  about  Holland  ;  it  is 


Correspondence.  151 

Hollo's  wi;;h.  Difficulties  of  con  versation. 

such  a  funny  country,  on  account  of  their  being 
bo  many  canals.  The  water  is  all  smooth  and 
still  in  all  the  canals,  (except  when  the  wind 
blows,)  and  so  there  must  be  excellent  skating 
every  where  in  the  winter. 

"  I  wish  it  was  winter  here  now,  for  one  day, 
so  that  uncle  George  and  I  could  have  some 
Dutch  skating. 

"  There  must  be  good  skating  every  where  here 
in  the  winter,  for  there  is  water  every  where,  and 
it  is  all  good  water  for  skating.  In  the  fields, 
instead  of  brooks  running  in  crooked  ways  and 
tumbling  over  rocks,  there  are  only  long  and 
narrow  channels  of  smooth  water,  just  about  wide 
enough  to  skate  upon,  and  reaching  as  far  as  you 
can  see. 

"  The  people  here  speak  Dutch,  and  they  can- 
not understand  me,  and  I  cannot  understand  them. 
And  that  is  not  the  worst  of  it ;  they  can't  under- 
stand that  /  can't  understand  them.  Sometimes 
the  woman  that  comes  to  make  my  bed  tells  me 
something  in  Dutch,  and  I  tell  her  that  I  can't 
understand.  I  know  the  Dutch  for  { I  can't  under- 
stand.' Then  she  says,  *  0  ! '  and  goes  on  to  tell  me 
over  again,  only  now  she  tries  to  speak  plainer — 
as  if  it  could  make  any  difference  to  me  whether 
she  speaks  plain  or  not.  I  shake  my  head,  and 
tell  her  I  can't  understand  any  thing.     I  tell  her 


152  Rollo  in  Holland. 

How  Rollo  conversed  by  signs.  Candles.  Fire. 

in  French,  and  in  English,  and  in  Dutch.  But 
it  does  not  do  any  good,  for  she  immediately  be 
gins  again,  and  tells  me  the  whole  story  all  over 
again,  trying  to  speak  plainer  than  ever.  I  sup- 
pose she  thinks  that  any  body  can  understand 
Dutch,  if  she  only  speaks  it  plain  enough  to  them. 

"  When  I  want  any  thing  of  them,  I  always  tell 
them  by  signs.  The  other  evening,  uncle  George 
and  I  wanted  some  candles.  So  I  rang  the  bell, 
and  a  woman  came.  I  went  to  the  door  of  the 
room,  and  made  believe  that  I  had  two  candle- 
sticks in  my  hand,  and  that  I  was  bringing  them 
in.  I  made  believe  put  them  on  the  table,  and 
then  sat  down  and  opened  a  book,  and  pretended 
that  I  was  reading  by  the  light  of  them.  She  un- 
derstood me  immediately.  She  laughed,  and  said, 
1  Ya,  ya ! '  and  went  off  out  of  the  room  to  get 
the  candles. 

"  Ya,  ya,  means  yes,  yes. 

"Another  time  we  wanted  a  fire.  So  when  the 
woman  came  in,  I  shivered,  and  made  believe  that 
I  was  very  cold,  and  then  I  went  to  the  fireplace, 
and  made  believe  warm  myself.  Then  I  pointed  to 
the  fireplace,  and  made  a  sign  for  her  to  go  away 
and  bring  the  fire  to  put  there.  But  instead  of 
going,  she  told  me  something  in  Dutch,  and  shook 
her  head  ;  and  when  I  said  I  could  not  understand 
it,  she  told  me  over  again  ;  and  finally  she  went 
away,  and  sent  the  landlady.     The  landlady  could 


Correspondence.  155 


Canal  boats.  The  dog  carts. 

speak  a  little  English.  So  she  told  me  that  we 
could  not  have  any  fire  except  in  foot  stoves,  foi 
the  fireplace  stoves  were  not  put  up. 

41  It  is  very  curious  to  walk  about  the  streets, 
and  see  the  boats  on  the  canals,  and  what  the  peo- 
ple are  carrying  back  and  forth  in  them.  I  watch 
them  sometimes  from  the  windows  of  the  hotel, 
especially  when  it  rains,  and  we  cannot  go  out. 
They  have  every  thing  in  these  boats.  They  use 
some  of  them  instead  of  houses  ;  and  the  man 
who  owns  them  lives  in  them  with  his  wife  and 
children,  and  sometimes  with  his  ducks  and 
chickens. 

"  I  often  see  the  little  children  playing  on  the 
decks  of  the  boat.  Once  I  saw  one  that  had  a 
dog,  and  he  was  trying  to  teach  him  to  cipher  on 
a  slate.  His  mother  and  the  other  children  were 
on  the  boat  too. 

"  The  people  use  their  dogs  here  to  draw  carts. 
They  have  three  or  four  sometimes  harne&sed  in 
together.  The  dogs  look  pretty  poor  and  lean, 
but  they  draw  like  good  fellows.  You  would  be 
surprised  to  see  what  great  loads  they  draw. 
They  draw  loads  of  vegetables  to  market,  and 
then,  when  the  vegetables  are  sold,  they  draw 
the  market  women  home  in  the  empty  carts. 

"  Only  they  don't  mind  very  well,  when  they 
are  told  which  way  to  go.    I  saw  a  boy  yesterday 


156  Rollo   in  Holland. 

The  marketing  boats  and  their  contents. 

riding  along  in  a  cart,  with  a  good  big  dog  to 
draw  him,  and  when  he  came  to  a  street  where  he 
wanted  him  to  turn  down,  the  dog  would  not 
turn.  The  boy  hallooed  out  to  him  in  Dutch  a 
good  manv  times,  and  finally  the  boy  had  to  jump 
down  out  of  the  cart,  and  run  and  seize  him  by 
the  collar,  and  pull  him  round. 

"  It  is  not  a  great  deal  that  they  use  dog  carts 
to  bring  things  to  market,  for  generally  they 
bring  them  in  boats.  They  take  almost  every 
thing  to  and  fro  along  the  canals  in  boats  ;  and 
it  is  very  curious  to  stand  on  a  bridge  and  look 
down  on  the  boats  that  pass  under,  and  see  how 
many  different  kinds  of  boats  there  are,  and  how 
many  different  kinds  of  things  they  have  in  them. 
This  morning,  I  saw  one  that  had  the  bottom  of 
it  divided  into  three  pens  for  animals.  In  the 
first  pen  were  two  great  cows,  lying  down  on  the 
straw ;  in  the  second  pen  were  several  sheep  ; 
and  in  the  third  there  were  as  many  as  a  dozen 
small  pigs,  just  big  enough  to  be  roasted.  I  sup- 
pose it  was  a  farmer  bringing  in  his  stock  to 
market. 

"  Sometimes  they  row  the  boats  along  the  canal, 
and  sometimes  they  push  them  with  setting  pcles. 
They  have  the  longest  setting  poles  in  some  of 
the  boats  that  I  ever  saw.  There  is  an  iron  pike 
at  one  end  of  the  pole,  and  a  wooden  knob  at  the 


Correspondence.  157 

Setting  poles.  Pulling  the  boats.  Travelling  by  canal. 

other.  When  they  are  pushing  the  boat  by  means 
of  one  of  these  poles,  they  run  the  ironed  end  of 
it  down  to  the  bottom,  and  then  the  man  puts  his 
shoulder  to  the  little  knob  at  the  other  end  and 
pushes.  As  the  boat  goes  on,  he  walks  along  the 
boat  from  the  bow  to  the  stern,  pushing  all  the 
way  as  hard  as  he  can  push. 

"  When  they  are  out  of  town  the  men  pull  the 
boats  along  the  canals  by  means  of  a  long  cord, 
which  is  fastened  to  a  strap  over  their  shoulders. 
With  this  strap  they  walk  along  on  the  tow-path 
of  the  canal,  pulling  in  this  way  —  so  that  if  the 
cord  should  break,  I  should  think  they  would  fall 
headlong  on  the  ground. 

"  I  saw  a  man  and  a  woman  the  other  day  pull- 
ing a  double  boat,  loaded  with  hay,  along  a  canal. 
The  hay  was  loaded  across  from  one  boat  to  the 
other.  It  made  as  much  as  five  or  six  of  the 
largest  cart  loads  of  hay  that  I  ever  saw.  I  was 
surprised  to  see  that  a  man  and  a  woman  could 
draw  so  much.  They  drew  it  by  long  lines,  and 
by  straps  over  their  shoulders.  The  woman's 
line  was  fastened  to  one  of  the  boats,  and  the 
man's  to  the  other. 

"The  people  travel  a  great  deal  in  boats  in 
these  parts  of  the  country,  where  there  are  no  rail- 
roads. Uncle  George  and  I  took  a  little  jour- 
ney in  one,  the  other  day.     I  wanted  to  go  very 


158  Rollo   in   Holland. 

The  excursion  the  travellers  tock  to  Delft. 

much,  but  uncle  George  was  afraid,  he  said,  that 
they  might  take  us  somewhere  where  there  would 
be  nobody  that  could  talk  English,  and  so  we 
might  get  into  some  serious  difficulty.  But  he 
said  that  he  would  go  with  me  a  few  miles,  if  I 
could  find  a  canal  boat  going  to  some  place  that 
we  knew.  So  I  found  one  going  to  a  town  called 
Delft.  We  knew  that  place,  because  we  had  come 
through  it,  or  close  by  it,  by  the  railway. 

"  Uncle  George  said  that  it  was  an  excellent 
plan  to  go  there,  for  then,  if  we  got  tired  of  the 
canal  boat  in  going,  we  could  come  home  by  a 
railroad  train. 

"  So  we  went ;  and  we  had  a  very  pleasant 
time,  indeed.  I  found  the  canal  boat  by  going  to 
the  place  where  the  boats  all  were,  and  saying, 
Delft,  Delft,  to  the  people ;  and  then  they  pointed 
me  to  the  right  boat.  So  we  got  in.  When  the 
captain  came  for  the  fare,  I  took  out  a  handful 
of  money,  and  said  Delft,  and  also  pointed  to  un- 
cle George.  So  he  took  out  enough  to  pay  for 
uncle  George  and  me  to  go  to  Delft.  At  least 
T  suppose  he  thought  it  was  enough,  though  I 
thought  it  was  very  little. 

"  We  had  a  very  pleasant  sail  to  Delft.  The 
banks  of  the  canal  are  beautiful.  They  are  green 
and  pretty  every  where,  and  in  some  places  there 
were  beautiful  gardens,  and  summer  housesj  and 
pavilions  close  upon  the  shore. 


Correspondence.  159 

The  close  of  Rollo's  long  letter. 

"  But  now  I  begin  to  be  tired  of  writing.  J 
should  have  been  tired  a  great  while  ago,  only  I 
have  stopped  to  rest  pretty  often,  and  to  look 
out  the  window,  and  see  what  is  going  by  on  the 
canal. 

11  There  is  a  boat  coming  now  with  a  mast,  and 
I  don't  see  what  they  are  going  to  do,  for  there 
is  a  bridge  here,  and  it  is  not  a  draw  bridge. 
Almost  all  the  bridges  are  draw  bridges,  but  this 
one  is  not.  So  I  don't  see  how  he  is  going  to 
get  by. 

"  Ah,  I  see  how  it  is  !  The  mast  is  on  a  hinge, 
so  that  it  can  turn  down  backward,  and  lie  along 
flat  on  the  deck  of  the  boat.  It  is  going  down 
now. 

"  Now  it  is  down,  and  the  boat  is  going  under 
the  bridge. 

"But  good  by,  mother,  for  it  is  time  for  me  to 
stop. 

"  Your  affectionate  and  dutiful  son, 

"  ROLLO. 

"  P.  S      This  is  the  longest  letter  that  I  evei 

wiote." 


160  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  agriculture  of  Holland.  Beef.  Cheeses. 


Chapter  VIII. 
The   Commissioner. 

As  may  well  be  imagined,  the  best  use  to  which 
the  green  fields  of  Holland  can  be  put,  is  the 
raising  of  grass  to  feed  cattle  ;  for  the  wetness  of 
the  land,  which  makes  it  somewhat  unsuitable  to 
be  ploughed,  causes  grass  to  grow  upon  it  very 
luxuriantly.  Accordingly,  as  you  ride  through 
the  country  along  the  great  railway  lines,  you  see, 
every  where,  herds  of  cattle  and  flocks  of  sheep 
feeding  in  the  meadows  that  extend  far  and  wide 
in  every  direction. 

The  cattle  are  kept  partly  for  the  purpose  of 
being  fatted  and  sent  to  market  for  beef,  and 
partly  for  their  milk,  which  the  Dutch  farmers 
make  cheese  of.  Dutch  cheeses  are  celebrated  in 
every  part  of  the  world. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  Amsterdam  there  are 
a  number  of  dairy  villages  where  cheeses  are 
made,  and  some  of  them  are  almost  always  visited 
by  travellers.  They  are  great  curiosities,  in  fact, 
on  account  of  their  singular  and  most  extraor* 


The    Commissioner.  101 

The  village  of  Broek.  "Weather  predictions. 

dinary  neatness.  Cleanliness  is,  in  all  parts  of 
the  world,  deemed  a  very  essential  requisite  of  a 
dairy,  and  the  Dutch  housewives  in  the  dairy  vil- 
lages of  Holland  have  carried  the  idea  to  the 
extreme.  The  village  which  is  most  commonly 
visited  by  strangers  who  go  to  Amsterdam,  is 
one  called  Broek.  It  lies  to  the  north  of  Am- 
sterdam, and  at  a  distance  of  about  five  or  six 
miles  from  it. 

One  day  when  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  arrived 
in  Amsterdam,  Mr.  George,  just  at  sundown, 
looked  out  at  the  window  of  the  hotel,  and 
said,  — 

"  Eollo,  I  think  it  is  going  to  be  a  superb  day 
to-morrow.''' 

11  So  do  I,"  said  Rollo. 

"  At  least,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  I  should  think 
so  if  I  were  in  America.  The  wind  has  all  gone 
down,  and  the  western  sky  is  full  of  golden  clouds 
chining  in  roseate  splendor." 

Mr.  George  enunciated  these  high-sounding 
words  in  a  pompous  and  theatrical  manner,  which 
made  Rollo  laugh  very  heartily. 

"  And,  to  descend  from  poetry  to  plain  prose," 
said  Mr.  George,  "I  think  we  had  better  take 
advantage  of  the  fine  weather  to  go  to  Broek  to- 
morrow." 

11 


162  Rollo  in   Holland. 

Rollo's  readiness  to  go.  Peter  the  Great  at  Saandam. 

"  Very  well,"  said  Rollo,  "  that  plan  suits  me 
exactly." 

Rollo  was  always  ready  for  any  plan  which  in- 
volved the  going  away  from  the  place  where  he 
was,  to  some  new  place  which  he  had  not  seen 
before. 

"  But  how  are  we  going  to  find  the  way  there  ?" 
said  Rollo. 

"  I  shall  take  a  commissioner,"  said  Mr.  George. 
"I  am  going  to  Saandam,  too,  where  Peter  the 
Great  learned  ship  carpentry." 

"I  have  heard  something  about  that,"  said  Rol- 
lo, "  but  1  don't  know  much  about  it." 

"  Why,  Peter  the  Great  was  emperor  of  Rus- 
sia," said  Mr.  George,  "  and  he  wished  to  intro- 
duce ship  building  into  his  dominions.  So  he 
came  to  Holland  to  learn  about  the  construction 
of  ships,  in  order  that  he  might  be  better  qual- 
ified to  take  the  direction  of  the  building  of  a 
fleet  in  Russia.  Saandam  was  the  place  that  he 
came  to.  While  he  was  there  he  lived  in  a  small, 
wooden  house,  near  the  place  where  the  ship 
building  was  going  on.  That  house  is  there  now, 
and  almost  every  body  that  comes  to  this  part  of 
the  country  goes  to  see  it." 

"How  long  ago  was  it  that  he  was  there  ?  " 
asked  Rollo. 

"  It  was  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago,"  said  Mr.  George. 


The   Commissioner.  163 

The  wooden  house  at  Saandam.  The  commissioner. 

"I  should  not  think  a  wooden  house  would 
have  lasted  so  long,"  said  Rollo. 

"  It  would  not  have  lasted  so  long,"  replied 
Mr.  George,  "  if  they  had  not  taken  special  pains 
to  preserve  it.  They  have  built  a  brick  house 
around  it  and  over  it,  to  protect  it  from  the 
weather,  and  so  it  has  been  preserved..  Now  I 
think  we  had  better  go  to-morrow  and  see  Broek, 
and  also  Saandam,  and  I  am  going  to  take  a  com- 
missioner." 

Mr.  George  had  employed  a  commissioner  once 
before,  as  the  reader  will  perhaps  recollect,  name- 
ly, at  the  Hague  ;  and  perhaps  I  ought  to  stop 
here  a  moment  to  explain  more  fully  what  a  com- 
missioner is.  He  is  a  servant  hired  by  the  day 
to  conduct  strangers  about  the  town  where  they 
reside,  and  about  the  environs,  if  necessary,  to 
show  them  what  there  is  that  is  curious  and  won- 
derful there.  These  men  are  called,  sometimes 
commissioners  and  sometimes  valets  de  place,  and 
in  their  way  they  are  very  useful. 

If  a  traveller  arrives  at  a  hotel  in  the  morning, 
at  any  important  town  in  Europe,  before  he  has 
been  in  his  room  fifteen  minutes  he  generally 
hears  a  knock  at  his  door,  and  on  bidding  the 
person  come  in,  a  well-dressed  looking  servant 
man  appears  and  asks,  — 


1G4  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Utilitj  of  commissioners. 

"  Shall  you  wish  for  a  commissioner,  sir,  to- 
day?" 

Or  if  the  gentleman,  after  remaining  in  his 
room  a  few  minutes,  takes  his  wife  or  his  daugh- 
ter, or  whomever  he  may  have  travelling  with  him, 
and  goes  out  from  the  door  of  the  hotel,  he  is 
pretty  sure  to  be  met  near  the  door  by  one  or 
more  of  these  men,  who  accost  him  earnestly, 
paying,  — 

"Do  you  want  a  commissioner,  sir?"  Or, 
"  Shall  I  show  you  the  way,  sir  ?  »  Or,  "  Would 
you  like  to  see  the  museum,  sir  ?  " 

When  a  traveller  intends  to  remain  some  days 
in  a  place,  he  has  generally  no  occasion  for  a 
commissioner  ;  since,  in  his  rambles  about  the 
town,  he  usually  finds  all  the  places  of  interest 
himself,  and  in  such  a  case  the  importunities  of 
the  commissioners  seeking  employment  are  some- 
times annoying  to  him.  But  if  his  time  is  very 
short,  or  if  he  wishes  to  make  excursions  into  the 
neighborhood  of  a  town  where  he  does  not  un- 
derstand the  language  of  the  people,  then  such  a 
servant  is  of  very  great  advantage. 

Mr.  George  thought  that  his  proposed  excur- 
sion to  Broek  and  Saandam  was  an  occasion  on 
which  a  commissioner  could  be  very  advanta- 
geously employed.  Accordingly,  after  he  and 
Rollo  had  finished  their  dinner,  which  they  took 


The   Commissioner.  165 

Inquiries  about  the  route  to  Broek. 

at  a  round  table  near  a  window  in  the  coffee 
room,  he  asked  Rollo  to  ring  the  bell. 

Rollo  did  so,  and  a  waiter  came  in. 

uSend  me  in  a  commissioner,  if  you  please," 
said  Mr.  George. 

"  Very  well,  sir,"  said  the  waiter,  with  a  bow. 

The  waiter  went  out,  and  in  a  few  minutes  a 
well-dressed  and  very  respectable  looking  young 
man  came  in,  and  advancing  towards  Mr.  George, 
said,  — 

"  Did  you  wish  to  see  a  commissioner,  sir  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  I  want  to  make 
some  inquiries  about  going  to  Broek  and  to  Saan- 
dam,  to-morrow.  I  want  to  know  what  the  best 
way  is  to  go,  and  what  the  expenses  will  be." 

So  saying,  Mr.  George  took  out  a  pencil  and  a 
piece  of  paper  from  his  pocket,  in  order  to  make 
a  memorandum  of  what  the  commissioner  should 
say. 

"  In  the  first  place,"  asked  Mr.  George,  "  what 
is  your  name  ?  I  shall  want  to  know  what  to  call 
you." 

"  My  name  is  James,"  said  the  commissioner. 

"  Well,  now,  James,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  I  want 
you  to  tell  me  what  the  best  way  is  to  go,  and  what 
all  the  expenses  will  be.  I  want  to  know  every 
thing  beforehand." 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  James,   "  we  shall   go   first 


166  Rollo  in   Holland. 

The  Y.  The  trekschuyt.  The  expenses. 

by  the  ferry  boat  across  to  the  Y  *  and  there  we 
shall  take  the  trekschuyt  for  a  short  distance  on 
the  canal." 

"  And  how  much  will  that  cost  ?  "  asked  Mr. 
G  eorge. 

"  For  the  three,  forty-five  cents,"  said  James. 

He  meant,  of  course,  Dutch  cents.  It  takes  two 
and  a  half  Dutch  cents  to  make  one  American 
cent. 

"  There,"  continued  James,  "  we  take  a  car- 
riage." 

"  And  how  much  will  the  carriage  be  ?  "  asked 
Mr.  George. 

"  To  go  to  Broek  and  back,  and  then  to  Saan- 
dam,  will  be  ten  guilders." 

Mr.  George  made  memoranda  of  these  sums  on 
his  paper,  as  James  named  them. 

"  And  the  tolls,"  continued  James,  "  will  be  one 
guilder  and  twenty-five  cents  more." 

"  And  the  driver  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

In  most  of  the  countries  of  Europe,  when  you 
make  a  bargain  for  the  carriage,  the  driver's  ser- 
vices are  not  included  in  it.  He  expects  a  fee 
besides. 

"  The  driver,  fifty  cents.  Half  a  guilder/'  said 
James. 

*  The  Y  is  the  name  of  the  sheet  of  water  which  lies  Define  Aro 
sterdam.    It  is  a  sort  of  harbcr. 


Th  e   Commissioner.  167 

»  . — 

Mr.  George  calculates  the  cost  of  the  excursion. 

"  Is  that  enough  for  him  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  James,  "that's  enough." 

"  We  will  call  it  seventy-five  cents,"  said  Mr. 
George.     So  saying,  he  wrote  seventy-five. 

11  Then  there  will  be  some  fees  to  pay,  I  sup- 
pose," said  Mr.  George,  "  both  at  Broek  and  at 
Saandam." 

"  Yes.  sir/  said  James.  "  We  pay  twenty-five 
cents  at  the  dairy,  twenty-five  cents  at  the  garden, 
and  twenty-five  to  the  hostler.  That  makes  seven- 
ty-five. And  the  same  at  Saandam,  to  see  the  hut 
of  Peter  the  Great,  and  the  house.  That  makes 
one  guilder  fifty  centimes." 

"  Is  that  all  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

"There  will  be  forty-five  cents  for  the  ferry 
coming  back,"  said  James. 

Mr.  George  added  this  sum  to  the  column,  and 
then  footed  it  up.  The  amount  was  nearly  fifteen 
guilders. 

"  We  will  call  it  fifteen  guilders,"  said  he.  "  To- 
morrow I  will  give  you  fifteen  guilders,  and  you 
will  pay  all  expenses.  And  then  what  shall  I 
have  to  pay  you  for  your  services  ?  " 

"  My  charge  is  four  guilders  for  the  day,"  said 
James. 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  And  at  what 
time  in  the  morning  will  it  be  best  to  set  out  ?  " 

"  There  is  a  boat  at  nine  o'clock,"  said  Jamea 


168  Rollo   in   Holland. 

Starting  before  breakfast. 

11  Then  we  will  leave  here  at  half  past  eight. 
We  will  have  breakfast,  Rollo,  at  eight.  Or  per- 
haps we  can  hare  breakfast  at  Broek.  Is  then;  a 
hotel  there,  James  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  James.  "There  is  a  hotel 
there." 

"Very  well.  Then  we  will  wait  till  we  get 
there  before  we  take  breakfast,  and  we  will  ex- 
pect you  at  half  past  eight.  Our  room  is  number 
eleven." 

The  arrangement  being  thus  fully  made,  the 
commissioner,  promising  to  be  punctual,  bowed  and 
retired. 

"  Now,  Rollo,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  to-morrow 
we  will  have  a  good  time.  After  I  give  the  com- 
missioner the  fifteen  guilders,  I  shall  have  no 
further  care  or  responsibility,  but  shall  be  taken 
along  over  the  whole  ground  as  if  I  were  a  child 
under  the  care  of  his  father." 


The  great   Canal.  169 


Tho  travellers  stop  at  the  post  office. 


Chapter  IX. 
The  great   Canal. 

The  commissioner  knocked  at  Mr.  George's 
door  at  the  time  appointed.  Mr.  George  and  Rol- 
lo  were  both  ready.  Mr.  George  counted  out  the 
fifteen  guilders  on  the  table,  and  James  put  them 
in  liis  pocket.     The  party  then  set  out. 

Mr.  George  wished  to  stop  by  the  way  to  put  a 
letter  in  the  post  office,  and  to  pay  the  postage  of 
it.  He  desired  to  do  this  personally,  for  he  wished 
to  inquire  whether  the  letter  would  go  direct.  So 
James  led  them  by  the  way  of  the  post  office,  and 
conducted  Mr.  George  into  the  office  where  foreign 
letters  were  received,  and  the  payment  of  postage 
taken  for  them.  Here  James  served  as  interpreter. 
Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  most  important  duties  of  a 
commissioner  to  serve  as  an  interpreter  to  his  em- 
ployer, whenever  his  services  are  required  in  this 
capacity. 

When  the  letter  was  put  in,  the  party  resumed 
their  walk.  The  commissioner  went  on  before, 
carrying  Mr.  George's  travelling  shawl  and  the 


I  TO  Rollo   in   Holland. 

Hurrying  to  the  boat.  View  of  the  harbor. 

umbrella,  and  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  followed. 
The  way  lay  along  a  narrow  street,  by  the  side 
of  a  canal.  There  were  a  thousand  curious  sights 
to  be  seen,  both  among  the  boats  on  the  canal  and 
along  the  road ;  but  Rollo  could  not  stop  to  ex- 
amine them,  for  the  commissioner  walked  prettj 
fast. 

"  I  wish  he  would  not  walk  so  fast,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Ah,  yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  he  is  right  this 
morning,  for  we  want  to  get  to  the  pier  in  time 
for  the  boat.  But  in  walking  about  the  town  to 
see  it,  it  would  be  a  great  trouble  to  us." 

"  To-morrow  we  will  go  about  by  ourselves/ 
said  Rollo,  "  and  stop  when  and  where  we  please. ' 

"  We  will,"  said  Mr.  George. 

At  last  the  party  came  out  to  what  may  oe 
called  the  front  of  the  city,  where  they  could  look 
off  upon  the  harbor.  This  harbor  is  a  sheet  of 
water  called  the  Y,  which  has  been  before  re- 
ferred to.  The  morning  was  bright  and  beauti- 
ful, and  the  water  was  covered  with  ships,  steam- 
ers, barges,  boats,  and  vessels  of  every  form  and 
size,  going  to  and  fro.  The  steamers  passed  swift- 
ly, but  the  sailing  vessels  scarcely  moved,  so  calm 
and  still  was  the  morning  air.  The  sun  was  shin- 
ing, and  the  whole  scene  presented  to  Mr.  George's 
and  Rollo's  view,  as  they  looked  out  over  the  wa 
ter,  was  extremely  brilliant  and  beautiful. 


The  great   Canal.  171 


The  landing  pier.  Rollo  and  Mr.  George  on  board  tl  e  boat. 


The  commissioner  led  the  way  out  over  a  long 
pier  supported  by  piles,  to  a  sort  of  landing  plat- 
form at  a  distance  from  the  shore.  This  place 
was  quite  large.  It  had  a  tavern  upon  it,  and  a 
great  many  different  offices  belonging  to  the  dif- 
ferent lines  of  steamers,  and  piers  projecting  in 
different  directions  for  the  different  boats  and 
steamers  to  land  at.  It  stood  at  some  distance 
from  the  shore,  and  the  whole  had  the  appearance 
of  a  little  village  on  an  island.  It  would  have 
been  an  island  indeed,  if  there  had  been  any  land 
about  it ;  but  there  was  not.  It  was  built  wholly 
on  piles. 

Here  were  crowds  of  people  going  and  coming 
on  this  stage,  some  having  just  landed  from  the 
different  steamers  that  had  just  arrived,  and 
some  about  to  embark  in  others  that  were  going 
away.  Small  boats  were  coming,  too,  over  the 
water,  with  passengers  in  them,  among  whom 
were  many  peasant  girls,  whose  foreheads  and 
temples  were  adorned  with  a  profusion  of  golden 
ornaments,  such  as  are  worn  by  the  ladies  of 
North  Holland.  Rollo  looked  this  way  and  that 
as  he  passed  along  the  stage,  and  he  wished  for 
time  to  stop  and  examine  what  he  saw  ;  but  the 
commissioner  walked  rapidly  on,  and  led  the  way 
to  the  ferry  boat. 

"  You  will  walk  on  board,"  said  James,  "  while 
I  get  the  tickets." 


172  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  ticket  master.  Independence.  Nine  o'clock. 

So  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  went  over  the  plank 
on  board  the  boat,  while  James  turned  to  a  lit- 
tle office  that  stood  near  to  get  the  tickets. 

There  was  a  man  standing  at  the  end  of  the 
plank  to  collect  the  tickets  as  the  passengers 
came  on  board.  Mr.  George,  as  he  passed,  point- 
ed back  to  the  office  where  James  had  gone. 
The  man  bowed,  and  he  and  Rollo  passed  on. 

"  How  independent  we  are ! "  said  Mr.  George. 
"  I  shall  have  nothing  to  do  with  making  any 
payments  all  day  to-day,  and  it  will  seem  as  if 
we  were  travelling  free." 

The  ferry  boat  was  of  a  very  singular  con- 
struction, and  most  singular  looking  people  they 
were  who  were  on  board  of  it.  It  had  a  great 
flat  deck,  which  was  of  an  oval  form,  and  was 
spreading  out  very  wide  at  the  sides.  There 
were  seats  here  and  there  in  different  places,  but 
no  awning  or  shelter  of  any  kind  overhead.  Rol- 
lo was  glad  of  this,  for  the  morning  was  so  fine, 
and  the  view  on  every  side  was  so  magnificent, 
that  he  was  very  much  pleased  to  have  it  so 
wholly  unobstructed. 

As  soon  as  the  chimes  of  the  city  clocks  began 
to  strike  for  nine,  the  various  steamboats  began 
to  shoot  out  in  different  directions  from  the  piers 
of  the  landing,  and  soon  the  ferry  boat  began 
to  move,  too.     She  moved,  however,  very  slowly, 


The  great   Canal.  173 


The  prospect  seen  by  the  travellers  upon  the  Y. 


"  What  a  slow  and  clumsy  boat !  "  said  Rollo. 

"  I'm  glad  she  is  slow,"  replied  Mr.  George, 
"for  I  want  to  look  about.  I  should  be  willing 
to  be  an  hour  in  going  across  this  ferry." 

The  prospect  on  every  side  was,  indeed,  very 
fine.  On  looking  back  they  could  see  the  build- 
ings of  the  town  extending  far  and  wide  for 
miles,  with  domes,  and  towers,  and  spires,  and 
tops  of  trees,  and  masts  of  ships  rising  together 
every  where  above  the  tops  of  the  houses.  The 
water  of  the  harbor  was  covered  with  ships  and 
steamers  passing  to  and  fro  —  those  near  glitter- 
ing in  the  sun,  while  the  distant  ones  were  half 
lost  in  a  smoky  haze  that  every  where  softened 
and  concealed  the  horizon.  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  gazed  earnestly  on  this  scene,  looking  now 
in  this  direction,  and  now  in  that,  but  not  speak- 
ing a  word. 

When  they  were  about  half  across  the  Y, 
James  came  to  Mr.  George,  and  said, — 

"  This  ferry  boat  connects  with  a  steamer  on 
the  canal,  which  goes  to  the  Helder,  and  also 
with  various  trekschuyts.  We  shall  take  a  trek- 
schuyt  to  go  for  a  short  distance  ?  —  as  far  as  to 
the  place  where  we  shall  get  a  carriage." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  Arrange  it 
as  you  think  best.  Then  we  shall  go  a  short 
distance  on  the  great  canal." 


174  Rollo   in   Holland. 

The  grandest  of  canals.  The  Zuyder  Zee. 

11  Yes,  sir,"  said  James.  "  You  will  like  to  see 
a  little  of  the  canal." 

"I  shall,  indeed,"  said  Mr.  George. 

The  great  canal  of  which  James  here  spoke  is 
the  grandest  work  of  the  kind  in  Holland,  and 
perhaps  in  the  world.  If  you  look  at  the  map 
you  will  see  that  Amsterdam  stands  somewhat  in 
the  interior  of  the  country,  and  that  the  only  ap- 
proach to  it,  by  sea,  is  through  a  great  gulf  called 
the  Zuyder  Zee.  Now,  the  water  in  the  Zuyder 
Zee  is  shallow.  There  are  channels,  it  is  true, 
that  are  tolerably  deep  ;  but  they  are  very  wind- 
ing and  intricate,  and  they  are  so  surrounded 
with  shoals  and  sand  banks  as  to  make  the  nav- 
igation very  difficult,  especially  for  ships  of  large 
size. 

The  people,  accordingly,  conceived  the  plan 
of  digging  a  canal  across  the  country,  from  Am- 
sterdam to  the  nearest  place  where  there  was 
deep  water  on  the  sea.  This  was  at  a  point  of 
land  called  the  Helder. 

The  reason  why  there  was  deep  water  there, 
was,  that  that  was  the  outlet  for  the  Zuyder  Zee, 
and  the  water  rushing  in  there  when  the  tide  is 
rising,  and  out  again  when  it  goes  down,  keeps 
the  channel  deep  and  clear. 

So  it  was  determined  to  make  a  canal  from  the 
Holder  to  Amsterdam.     But  the  land  was  lowe^, 


The   great   Canal.  175 


A  canal  fcelow  the  level  of  the  sea. 


almost  all  the  way,  than  the  sea.  This  rendered 
it  impossible  to  construct  the  canal  so  as  to  make 
it  of  the  same  level  with  the  sea,  without  build- 
ing up  the  banks  of  it  to  an  inconvenient  height. 
Besides,  it  was  just  as  well  to  make  the  canal 
lower  than  the  sea,  and  then  to  build  gates  at 
each  end  of  it,  to  prevent  the  sea  water  from 
coming  in. 

"  Then  how  were  the  ships  to  get  in  ?  "  asked 
Rollo,  when  Mr.  George  explained  this  to  him. 

"  Why,  there  were  two  ways,"  replied  Mr. 
George,  "  by  which  ships  might  get  in.  You  see, 
although  the  canal  is  lower  than  the  sea  is  gen- 
erally, there  is  an  hour  or  two  every  day  when 
the  tide  goes  down,  in  which  the  two  are  about 
on  a  level.  Accordingly,  by  opening  the  gates 
when  the  tide  is  low,  a  communication  would  be 
made  by  which  the  vessels  could  sail  in  and 
out." 

"  But  that  would  be  inconvenient,  I  should 
think,"  said  Rollo,  "  not  to  have  the  gates  open 
but  twice  a  day." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "  and  so,  to  enable 
them  to  admit  ships  at  any  time,  they  have  built 
locks  at  each  end." 

"  Like  the  locks  in  a  common  canal  in  Amer* 
tea?"  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "and  by  means  of 


176  Rollo  in  Holland. 

— — — —  , 

A  description  of  the  lock  upon  the  canal. 

these  locks,  ships  can  be  taken  in  and  out  at  any 
time." 

"  I  don't  exactly  understand  how  they  do  it/ 
said  Rollo. 

"  Let  me  explain  it  to  you,  then,"  replied  Mr. 
George.  "  Listen  attentively,  and  picture  to 
your  mind  precisely  what  I  describe,  and  see  if 
you  understand. 

"  First,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "  imagine  that 
you  are  down  by  the  sea  shore,  where  the  canal 
ends.  The  water  in  the  sea  is  higher  than  it  is 
in  the  canal,  and  there  are  two  sets  of  gates,  at 
a  little  distance  from  each  other,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  canal,  which  keep  the  water  of  the  sea 
from  flowing  in." 

11  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  can  picture  that  to  my 
mind.  But  how  far  apart  are  the  two  sets  of 
gates  ?  " 

"  A  little  farther  apart,"  said  Mr.  George, 
"  than  the  length  of  the  longest  ship.  Of  courje 
one  pair  of  these  locks  is  towards  the  sea,  and 
the  other  towards  the  canal.  I  will  call  the  first 
the  sea  gates,  and  the  other  the  canal  gates. 
The  space  between  the  two  gates  is  called  the 
lock." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "I  understand  all  that." 

"  Now,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "  a  ship  comes 
in,  we  will  suppose,  and  is  to  be  taken  into  the 


The  great   Canal.  177 

Mr.  George  explains  the  operation  of  a  lock. 

canal.  First,  the  men  open  the  sea  gates.  The 
sea  can  now  flow  into  the  lock,  but  it  cannot 
get  into  the  canal,  because  the  canal  gates  are 
still  shut." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo. 

"  And,  now  you  see,"  continued  Mr.  George, 
"  that  as  the  water  in  the  lock  is  high,  and  on  a 
level  with  the  sea,  the  ship  can  sail  into  the 
lock." 

"  But  it  can't  get  down  into  the  canal,"  said 
Rollo. 

"No,"  replied  Mr.  George,  "not  yet.  But 
now  the  men  shut  the  sea  gates,  and  thus  shut 
the  ship  in.  They  then  open  the  passages  through 
the  canal  gates,  and  this  lets  the  water  out  of 
the  lock  until  it  subsides  to  the  level  of  that  in 
the  canal,  and  the  ship  settles  down  with  it.  But 
the  sea  cannot  come  in,  for  the  sea  gates,  that  are 
now  behind  the  ship,  are  shut.  When  the  water 
in  the  lock  has  gone  down  to  the  canal  level,  then 
they  can  open  the  gates,  and  the  ship  can  sail 
along  out  of  the  lock  into  the  canal. 

"  Thus  they  lock  the  ship  down  into  the  canal 
at  one  end,  and  when  she  has  passed  through  the 
canal,  they  lock  her  up  into  the  Y  again  at  the 
other.'1 

"Tos."  said  Rollo.      "I  understand  it  now. 
12 


178  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  passenger  boat  did  not  go  through  the  lock. 

And  shall  we  go  into  the  canal  through  the  locks 
in  this  way  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know/'  said  Mr.  George.  "  I'll  ask 
James." 

So  Mr.  George  beckoned  to  James  to  come  to 
him,  and  asked  him  whether  they  should  enter 
t^e  canal  through  the  lock. 

"No,"  said  James.  "The  ferry  boat  does  not 
go  into  the  canal  at  all.  We  go  into  a  little 
dock  or  harbor  by  the  side  of  it,  and  the  passen- 
gers walk  over  the  dike,  and  down  to  the  canal, 
where  they  find  the  boats  ready  for  them  that 
they  are  to  take." 

"  Why  don't  they  pass  from  those  boats  through 
the  locks,  and  let  them  come  across  to  Amster- 
dam ?  "  asked  Rollo,  "  and  then  we  might  get  on 
board  them  there,  and  so  not  have  to  change 
from  one  boat  to  the  other." 

"  Because  it  takes  some  time,  and  some  trou- 
ble," said  James,  "  to  pass  any  thing  through  the 
locks,  and  it  is  not  worth  while  to  do  it,  except 
in  case  of  large  and  valuable  ships.  So  the  boats 
and  steamers  that  ply  along  the  canal  are  left 
inside  the  lock,  and  the  passengers  are  taken  to 
and  from  them  by  the  ferry  boat." 

The  ferry  boat,  by  this  time,  began  to  approach 
the  shore.  It  entered  into  a  little  opening  in  the 
land,  which  formed  a  sort  of  harbor.     Here  the 


The  great   Canal.  179 

The  steamboat  and  the  trekschuyt. 

passengers  were  landed  at  a  wharf,  which  was 
surrounded  by  small  buildings.  Thence  they  as- 
cended what  was  evidently  a  large  dike.  When 
they  reached  the  top  of  the  dike  they  saw  below 
them,  on  the  other  side  of  it,  the  beginning  of 
the  canal.  It  lay  several  feet  lower  than  the  wa- 
ter of  the  harbor  in  which  they  had  left  the  ferry 
boat ;  but  it  was  quite  wide,  and  it  was  bordered 
by  broad  dikes  with  avenues  of  trees  upon  them, 
on  either  side.  On  one  side,  under  the  trees,  was 
a  tow  path,  and  on  the  other  a  broad  and  smooth- 
ly gravelled  road. 

Two  boats  were  lying  moored  to  the  wharves 
at  the  side  of  the  canal.  One  was  a  long,  sharp, 
and  narrow  steamer,  which  was  going  through 
the  whole  length  of  the  canal  to  the  Helder. 
The  other  was  a  trekschuyt,  or  canal  boat, 
which  was  going  only  a  short  way,  to  the  near- 
est village. 

The  passengers  that  came  in  the  ferry  boat  di- 
vided into  two  parties,  as  they  came  down  the 
dike.  One  party  went  to  the  steamer,  the 
other  to  the  trekschuyt.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo, 
of  course,  went  with  the  last. 

The  trekschuyt  was  a  curious  sort  of  boat.  It 
was  built  like  the  Noah's  ark  made  for  children 
to  play  with  ;  that  is,  it  was  a  broad  boat,  with 
a  house  in  it.     The  roof  of  the  house,  which 


180  Rollo   in  Holland. 

Rollo  explores  the  trekschuyt. 

formed  the  deck  of  the  boat,  was  flat,  and  there 
were  seats  along  the  sides  of  it,  and  a  railing  be- 
hind them  on  the  margin,  to  keep  people  from 
falling  off.  At  each  end  of  the  house  were  two 
flights  of  steps,  leading  up  to  the  roof  or  deck, 
and  below  them  another  flight,  which  led  down 
to  the  little  cabins  below. 

As  soon  as  Rollo  got  on  board,  he  first  ran  up 
on  the  deck.  He  sat  down  on  the  seat  upon  one 
side,  and  then,  after  looking  about  a  moment,  he 
ran  over  to  the  other  side,  and  sat  down  there. 
Then  he  got  up,  and  said  that  he  was  going  be- 
low to  look  at  the  cabins. 

Mr.  George,  all  the  time,  stood  quietly  on  the 
deck,  looking  at  the  canal,  and  at  the  country 
around.  He  could  see  the  canal  extending,  in  a 
winding  direction,  across  the  country ;  but  the 
view  of  it  was  soon  lost,  as  the  winding  of  its 
course  brought  the  dikes  on  the  sides  of  it  in  the 
way  so  that  they  concealed  the  water.  He  could, 
however,  trace  its  course  for  some  distance,  by 
the  masts  and  sails  of  vessels  which  he  saw  at 
different  distances  rising  among  the  green  trees. 
Along  the  dike,  on  one  side,  was  a  high  road,  and 
on  the  other,  a  tow  path.  Different  boats  were 
coming  and  going  in  the  part  of  the  canal  that 
was  near.  They  were  drawn  by  long  and  slen- 
der lines,  that  were  fastened  to  a  tall  mast  set  up 


The   gkeat    Canal.  183 

Towing  a  ship  through  the  great  canal. 

near  the  bows  of  the  boat.  Some  were  drawn 
by  men,  and  some  by  horses. 

Before  the  trekschuyt  had  gone  far,  after  it 
commenced  its  voyage,  a  great  ship  was  seen 
coming  on  the  canal.  She  was  coming  from  the 
Helder.  It  was  a  ship  that  Lad  come  from  the 
West  Indies,  and  was  going  to  Amsterdam.  The 
wind  was  contrary  for  her,  and  they  could  not 
use  their  sails,  and  so  they  were  drawing  her 
along  by  horses.  There  were  two  teams  of  horses, 
eight  in  each  team.  The  view  of  these  teams, 
walking  along  the  tow  path,  with  the  immense 
ship  following  them  in  the  canal,  presented  a 
very  imposing  spectacle. 

The  trekschuyt  started  before  the  Helder 
steamer  ;  but  it  had  not  gone  far  before  Rollo, 
who  had  now  ascended  to  the  deck  again,  saw  her 
coming  up  behind  very  rapidly. 

11 1  tell  you  what  it  is,  uncle  George,"  said  he, 
"  I  wish  you  and  I  were  on  board  that  steamer, 
and  were  going  along  the  whole  length  of  the 
canal." 

"  So  do  I,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Could  not  we  get  on  board  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  No,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  We  cannot  change 
our  plan  to-day  very  well.  But  now  that  we 
have  found  the  way,  we  can  come  over  here  any 
morning  we  please,  and  take  the  Helder  steamer." 


184  Rollo  in   Holland. 

Meeting.  Passing  upon  the  canal.  A  collisica. 

"  Let's  come,"  said  Rollo,  eagerly.  "  Let's  come 
to-morrow." 

"  We'll  see  about  that,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  See, 
here  comes  a  market  boat." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "  The  man  is  towing  it,  and 
his  wife  is  steering." 

"  Now  we  will  see  how  they  pass,"  said  Rollo. 

There  was  no  difficulty  about  passing,  for  as 
soon  as  the  man  who  was  towing  the  market  boat 
found  that  the  trekschuyt  had  come  up  to  his  line, 
he  stopped  suddenly,  and  the  advance  of  his  boat 
caused  his  line  to  drop  into  the  water.  The  trek- 
schuyt then  sailed  right  over  it.  By  this  simple 
manoeuvre,  boats  and  vessels  could  pass  each  other 
very  easily,  and  generally  the  manoeuvre  was  ex- 
ecuted in  a  prompt  and  very  skilful  manner.  But 
once,  when  they  were  passing  a  boat,  the  woman 
who  was  steering  it  put  the  helm  the  wrong  way, 
and  though  the  captain  of  the  trekschuyt,  and  also 
the  husband  of  the  woman,  who  was  on  the  shore, 
shouted  to  her  repeatedly  in  a  loud  and  angry 
manner,  she  could  not  get  it  right  again  in  time 
to  avoid  a  collision.  The  trekschuyt  gave  the 
boat  a  dreadful  bump  as  it  went  by.  Fortunate- 
ly, however,  it  did  no  harm,  except  to  frighten 
the  poor  woman,  and  break  their  tow  line. 

After  going  on  in  this  way  for  fifteen  or  twenty 


The  great   Canal. 


185 


Mr.  George  and  Rollo  at  the  dairy  village. 


minutes  along  the  canal,  the  trekschuyt  arrived 
at  its  place  of  destination,  and  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  disembarked  at  a  little  village  of  very  neat 
and  pretty  houses,  built  along  the  dike  on  one 
•side  of  the  canal. 


186  Rollo   in  Holland 


The  travellers  found  numerous  and  excellent  carriage*. 


Chapter  X. 
The  Dairy  Village. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  walked  ashore  in  a  very 
independent  manner,  having  the  commissioner  to 
attend  to  the  tickets.  They  went  up  to  the  top 
of  the  dike,  and  waited  for  the  commissioner  to 
come  to  them. 

"  While  I  am  getting  the  carriage  ready,"  said 
the  commissioner,  when  he  came,  "  perhaps  you 
will  like  to  take  a  walk  on  the  bridge,  where 
there  is  a  very  fine  view.  But  first,  perhaps,  you 
will  look  at  the  carriage,  and  choose  the  one  that 
vou  will  like." 

So  saying,  James  led  the  way  into  a  sort  of 
stable,  where  there  were  a  great  many  very  nice 
and  pretty  carriages,  arranged  very  snugly  to- 
gether Mr.  George  was  surprised  to  see  so 
many.     He  asked  James  how  it  happened. 

"  0,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  travelling  on  the 
roads  about  here,"  said  James.  "  The  country 
is  very  rich  and  populous,  and  the  people  of  Am- 
sterdam come  out  a  great  deal." 


The   Dairy  Village.  187 

Tliey  choose  an  open  carriage.  Gardens  on  the  dike. 

Some  of  the  carriages  were  very  elegant.  One 
of  these  an  hostler  took  out,  and  told  Mr.  George 
that  he  could  have  it  if  he  chose.  There  was 
another  which  was  much  less  elegant,  but  it  was 
more  open. 

"  Let  us  take  the  open  one,"  said  Rollo.  "  We 
can  see  so  much  better." 

So  they  decided  upon  the  open  one  ;  and  then, 
while  the  hostlers  were  harnessing  the  horses,  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  went  forward  to  the  bridge. 

The  bridge  led  over  a  branch  canal,  which  here 
comes  into  the  main  canal.  The  road  to  it  lay 
along  the  dike,  and  formed  the  street  of  a  little 
village.  It  was  paved  with  bricks  placed  edge- 
wise, and  was  as  neat  as  a  parlor  floor.  The 
houses  were  all  on  one  side.  They  were  very 
small ;  but  they  were  so  neat  and  pretty,  and  the 
forms  of  them  were  so  strange  and  queer,  that 
they  looked  like  play  houses,  or  like  a  scene  in 
fairy  land,  rather  than  like  the  real  habitations 
of  men. 

There  were  pretty  gardens  by  them,  which  ex- 
tended down  the  slope  of  the  dike.  The  slopes 
of  the  dikes  are  always  very  gradual,  and  very 
nice  gardens  can  be  made  on  them. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  stood  on  the  bridge,  and 
looked  up  and  down  the  canals  on  either  side. 
They  saw  boats,  with  people  in  them,  getting 
ready  to  set  out  on  their  voyages. 


188  Rollo   in  Holland. 

Appearance  of  the  Dutch  village. 

"  I  wonder  where  that  canal  leads  to  ?  "  said 
Rollo. 

"  0,  it  goes  off  into  the  interior  of  the  country, 
some  where,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  The  country  is 
as  full  of  canals  as  Massachusetts  is  of  roads." 

"I  should  like,  very  much,"  said  Rollc,  "to 
get  on  board  that  boat  with  that  man,  and  go 
with  him  wherever  he  is  going." 

"So  should  I,  if  I  knew  Dutch,"  sail  Mr. 
George,  "  so  that  I  could  talk  with  him  as  we 
sailed  along." 

"  How  pretty  it  is  all  about  here,"  said  Rollo. 
"  What  a  queer  village,  —  built  on  a  bank  !  And 
what  a  funny  road  !     It  looks  like  a  play  road." 

The  road,  where  it  led  through  the  village,  did, 
indeed,  present  a  very  singular  appearance.  It 
was  very  narrow  indeed,  being  barely  wide 
enough  for  one  carriage  to  pass,  and  leaving 
scarcely  room  on  the  side  for  a  child  to  crowd 
up  against  the  house,  and  let  it  go  by.  On  the 
other  side  was  a  row  of  trees,  with  green  grass 
beneath,  covering  the  banks  of  the  canal. 

After  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had  been  stand- 
ing a  few  minutes  on  the  bridge  they  saw  that 
the  carriage  was  nearly  ready.  So  they  went 
back  to  the  place  and  got  in.  The  top  of  the 
carriage  was  turned  entirely  down,  so  that  they 
could  see  about  them  in  every  direction  as  they 


The  Dairy   Village.  189 

Narnm  streets.  Scenery  in  the  country. 

rode  along.  James  mounted  on  the  box  outside, 
with  the  driver. 

"Now,"  said  Rollo,  in  a  tone  of  great  satis- 
faction, "  we  will  have  a  very  first  rate  ride." 

The  carriage  drove  along  through  the  little 
street,  which  has  already  been  described.  Rollo 
could  reach  his  hand  out  and  almost  touch  the 
houses  as  they  rode  by.  There  were  little  shops 
kept  in  some  of  the  houses,  and  the  things  that 
were  for  sale  were  put  up  at  the  windows.  They 
looked  exactly  as  if  children  had  arranged  them 
for  play. 

After  leaving  the  village  the  road  turned  and 
followed  the  dike  of  a  branch  canal.  The  views 
on  every  side  were  extremely  beautiful.  The  ca- 
nal was  carried  along  between  its  two  banks,  high 
above  the  rest  of  the  country,  and  here  and  there, 
at  moderate  distances  from  each  other,  wind  mills 
were  to  be  seen  busy  at  work  pumping  up  water 
from  the  drains  in  the  fields,  and  pouring  it  into 
the  canal.  The  fields  were  covered  with  herds 
of  cattle  and  flocks  of  sheep,  and  here  and  there 
were  parties  of  men  mowing  the  grass  or  loading 
the  new-made  hay  into  boats,  that  lay  floating  in 
the  small  canals  which  bordered  the  fields. 

In  looking  about  over  the  country,  there  were 
wind  mills  to  be  seen  i*i  all  directions,  their  long 
^.rms  slowly  revolving  in  the  air,  and  interspersed 


190  Rollo  in  Holland. 

An  illusion.  Ships  sailing  on  land.  The  inn 

among  them  were  the  masts  and  sails  of  sloops 
and  schooners,  that  were  sailing  to  and  fro  along 
the  canals.  As  the  water  of  these  canals  was 
often  hidden  from  view  by  the  dikes  which  bor- 
dered them,  it  seemed  as  if  the  ships  and  steamers 
were  sailing  on  the  land  in  the  midst  of  green 
fields  and  trees,  and  smiling  villages. 

After  going  on  in  this  way  for  an  hour  or  more, 
the  carriage  approached  the  village  which  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  were  going  to  see.  The  vil- 
lage lay  on  the  borders  of  a  canal,  which  was 
here  quite  broad,  and  as  the  road  approached  it 
on  the  other  side  of  the  canal,  it  was  in  full  view 
for  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  as  the  party  ap- 
proached it.  The  houses  were  close  to  the  mar- 
gin of  the  water.  They  were  very  neat  and 
pretty,  and  were,  most  of  them,  painted  green. 
Many  of  them  had  little  canals  by  the  side  of 
them,  like  lanes  of  water  leading  into  the  rear  of 
the  houses,  and  the  prettiest  little  porticoes,  and 
trellises,  and  piazzas,  and  pavilions,  and  summer 
houses  were  seen  in  every  part.  The  road  went 
winding  round  a  wide  basin,  and  then,  after  cross- 
ing a  bridge,  the  carriage  stopped  at  an  inn. 

The  inn  was  entirely  outside  of  the  village. 
The  commissioner  said  that  they  must  walk 
through  the  village,  for  there  was  no  carriage 
road  through  it  at  all. 


The  Dairy  Village.  191 

A  walk  before  breakfast.  Biftek  aux  pommes. 


So  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  dismounted,  and  the 
hostlers  came  out  from  the  stable  to  unharness 
the  horses. 

"  Now,  Rollo,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  we  will  go 
in  and  order  a  breakfast,  and  then  we  will  take 
our  walk  through  the  village  while  it  is  getting 
ready." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  should  like  some  break* 
fast  very  much." 

"  What  shall  we  have  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

"  What  you  like,"  replied  Rollo.  "  You  al- 
ways get  good  breakfasts." 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  we  will  tell  them 
the  old  story." 

Just  at  this  moment  James  came  up  to  the  door 
of  the  hotel  where  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had 
been  standing  during  this  conversation. 

"  You  may  order  breakfast  for  us,  James,"  said 
Mr.  George,  "  and  let  them  have  it  ready  for  us 
when  we  get  back  from  our  walk." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  James.  "  And  what  will  you 
have?" 

"  Biftek  aux  pommes"  *  said  Mr.  George,  "  and 

*  Pronounced  biftek-o-pom.  This  is  a  very  favorite  breakfast  in 
France,  and  every  where,  in  fact,  throughout  Europe.  Mr.  George 
liked  it  better  than  any  thing  else,  not  only  for  bis  breakfast,  bul 
also  for  his  dinner.  It  consists  of  very  tender  beefsteaks,  delirious- 
ly seasoned,  and  accompanied  with  sliced  potatoes,  fried  in  a  pe 
2uliar  manner,  and  arranged  all  around  the  margin  of  the  disb- 


192  Rollo   in  Holland. 

The  beefsteak  and  fried  potato  man.  The  servant  girl. 

coffee.  And  let  them  give  us  some  of  their  best 
cheese." 

The  commissioner  went  in  to  give  the  order. 

"  Uncle  George."  said  Rollo,  "  I  think  you'll 
be  known  all  through  this  country  as  the  beefsteak 
and  fried  potato  man." 

Mr.  George  laughed. 

"  Well,"  said  he.  "  There  could  not  be  a  more 
agreeable  idea  than  that  to  be  associated  with  my 
memory." 

The  truth  is,  that  both  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
liked  the  biftek  aux  po?nmes  better  than  almost 
any  thing  else  that  they  could  have,  whether  for 
breakfast  or  dinner. 

After  having  given  the  order  for  the  breakfast 
to  a  very  nice  and  tidy-looking  Dutch  girl,  whose 
forehead  and  temples  were  adorned  with  a  pro- 
fusion of  golden  ornaments,  after  the  fashion  of 
the  young  women  of  North  Holland,  the  commis- 
sioner came  back,  and  the  whole  party  set  out  to 
walk  through  the  village.  There  were  no  streets, 
properly  so  called,  but  only  walks,  about  as  wide 
as  the  gravel  walks  of  a  garden,  which  meandered 
about  among  the  houses  and  yards,  in  a  most  extra- 
ordinary  manner.  There  were  beautiful  views, 
from  time  to  time,  presented  over  the  water  of  the 
canal  on  which  the  village  was  situated  ;  and  there 
were  a  great  number  of  small  canals  which  seemed 


The  Dairy  Village.  195 

Strange  intermingling  of  land  and  water.  The  dairy. 


to  penetrate  every  where,  with  the  prettiest  little 
bridges  over  them,  and  landing  steps,  and  bowers 
and  pavilions  along  the  borders  of  them,  and  gay 
ly  painted  boats  fastened  at  kitchen  doors,  and  a 
thousand  other  such-like  objects,  characteristic 
of  the  intimate  intermingling  of  land  and  water 
which  prevails  in  this  extraordinary  country. 

Every  thing  was,  however,  on  so  small  a  scale, 
and  so  scrupulously  neat  and  pretty,  that  it  looked 
more  like  a  toy  village  than  one  built  for  the  eve- 
ry-day  residence  of  real  men. 

After  walking  on  for  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile, 
the  commissioner  said  that  he  would  show  them 
the  interior  of  one  of  the  dairy  houses,  where  the 
cheeses  were  made,  —  for  the  business  of  this 
town  was  the  making  of  cheeses  from  the  milk 
of  the  cows  that  feed  on  the  green  polders  that 
lie  all  around  them. 

"  The  stalls  for  the  cows,"  said  James,  "  are  in 
the  same  house  in  which  the  family  lives ;  but  the 
cows  are  not  kept  there  in  summer,  and  so  we 
shall  find  the  stalls  empty." 

So  saying,  James  turned  aside  up  a  little  paved 
walk  which  led  to  the  door  of  a  very  pretty  look- 
ing house.  He  opened  the  door  without  any  cere- 
nony,  and  Mr.  George  and  Hollo  went  in. 

The  door  was  near  one  end  of  the  house,  and 
it  opened   into  a  passage  way  which  extended 


196  Rollo  in  Holland. 

-  — 

Decorated  stables.  The  ornaments  and  the  utensils. 

back  through  the  whole  depth  of  it.  On  one  side 
was  a  row  of  stalls,  or  cribs,  for  the  cows.  On 
the  other,  were  doors  opening  into  the  rooms  used 
for  the  family.  A  very  nice  looking  Dutch  wo- 
man, who  had  apparently  seen  the  party  from  her 
window,  came  out  through  this  side  door  into  the 
passage  way,  to  welcome  them  when  they  came. 

The  stalls  for  the  cows  were  all  beautifully 
made,  and  they  were  painted  and  decorated  in 
such  an  extraordinary  manner,  that  no  one  could 
have  imagined  for  what  use  they  were  intended. 
The  floors  for  them  were  made  of  the  glazed  tiles 
so  often  used  in  Holland,  and  the  partitions  be- 
tween them  were  nicely  rubbed  as  bright  as  a 
lady's  sideboard.  The  cribs,  too,  were  now,  in 
the  absence  of  the  cows,  occupied  with  various 
little  etageres,  and  sets  of  shelves,  which  were 
covered  with  fancy  cups  and  saucers,  china  im- 
ages, and  curiosities  of  all  sorts,  —  the  Dutch 
housewives  taking  a  special  pride  in  the  collec- 
tion of  such  things. 

The  row  of  cribs  was  separated  from  the  floor 
of  the  passage  way  by  a  sort  of  trench,  about  a 
foot  and  a  half  wide  and  ten  inches  deep,  and 
outside  this  trench,  and  also  within  it,  at  the  en- 
trances to  the  cribs,  were  arrayed  a  great  num- 
ber of  utensils  employed  in  the  work  of  the  dairy 
Buch  as  tubs,  cans,  cheese  presses,  moulds,  and 


The   Dairy  Village.  197 

Cheeses.  The  travellers  visit  the  dairywoman's  house. 

other  such  things.  These  were  all  beautifully 
made,  and  being  mounted  with  brass,  which  had 
received  the  highest  polish  by  constant  rubbing, 
they  gave  to  the  whole  aspect  of  the  place  an  ex- 
ceedingly gay  and  brilliant  appearance. 

Some  of  this  apparatus  was  in  use.  There 
were  tubs  standing,  with  the  curd  or  whey  in 
thsm,  and  cheeses  in  press  or  in  pickle,  and  va- 
rious other  indications  that  the  establishment  was 
a  genuine  one,  and  was  then  in  active  operation. 
The  cheeses  were  of  the  round  kind,  so  often  seen 
for  sale  at  the  grocers'  stores  in  Boston  and  New 
York.  They  looked  like  so  many  big  cannon 
balls. 

After  walking  down  the  passage  way  that  led 
by  the  side  of  cribs,  and  examining  all  these 
things  in  detail,  the  party  returned  to  the  door 
where  they  had  come  in,  and  then,  turning  to  the 
left,  went  into  the  rooms  of  the  house.  The  first 
room  was  the  bedroom.  The  second  was  the  par- 
lor. These  rooms  were  both  completely  crowded 
with  antique  looking  furniture,  among  which  were 
cabinets  of  Chinese  ware,  and  ornaments  of  every 
kind  ;  and  all  was  in  such  a  brilliant  condition 
of  nicety  and  polish,  as  made  the  spectacle  won- 
derful to  behold. 

The  bed  was   in  a  recess,  shut  up  by  doors. 


198  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Curious  beds.  The  neatness  of  the  Dutch. 

When  the  doors  were  opened  the  bed  place  looked 
precisely  like  a  berth  on  board  ship. 

After  looking  at  all  these  things  as  long  as 
they  wished,  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  bade  the  wo- 
man good  by,  and  James  gave  her  half  a  guilder. 
The  party  then  withdrew* 

11  Well,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  "  and  what 
do  you  think  of  that?" 

"I  think  it  is  a  very  extraordinary  spectacle," 
said  Mr.  George.  "And  it  is  very  curious  to 
think  how  such  a  state  of  things  has  come 
about." 

"  And  how  has  it  come  about  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  Why,  here,"  replied  Mr.  George,  "  for  a  thou- 
sand years,  for  aught  I  know,  the  people  have  been 
living  from  generation  to  generation  with  no  other 
employment  than  taking  care  of  the  cows  that 
feed  on  the  polders  around,  and  making  the  milk 
into  cheese.  That  is  a  business  which  requires 
neatness.  Every  kind  of  dairy  business  does. 
So  that  here  is  a  place  where  a  current  was  set 
towards  neatness  a  thousand  years  ago,  and  it 
has  been  running  ever  since,  and  this  is  what  it 
lias  come  to." 

Talking  in  this  manner  of  what  they  had  seen, 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  returned  to  the  inn,  and 
there  they  found  an  excellent  breakfast.     The) 


The  Dairy  Village 


199 


The  travellers  at  breakfast. 


were  waited  upon  at  the  table  by  the  young  wo- 
man who  had  so  many  golden  ornaments  in  her 
hair  ;  and  besides  the  biftek  aux  pommes,  and  the 
coffee,  and  the  hot  milk,  and  the  nice  butter,  there 
was  the  half  of  one  of  the  round  cheeses,  such  as 
they  had  seen  in  process  of  making  at  the  dairy. 


!00  Rollo   in   Holland. 

Returning  towards  Amsterdam.  A  sea  difte. 


Chapter    XI. 
Conclusion. 

After  finishing  their  breakfast,  Mr.  George 
and  Rollo  entered  the  carriage  again,  and  re- 
turned by  the  same  way  that  they  came,  for  some 
miles  towards  Amsterdam,  until  they  came  to  the 
place  where  the  road  turned  off  to  go  to  Saan- 
dam.  After  proceeding  for  some  distance  upon 
one  of  the  inland  dikes,  they  came  at  length  to 
the  margin  of  the  sea,  and  then  for  several  miles 
the  road  lay  along  the  great  sea  dike,  which  here 
defends  the  land  from  the  ingress  of  the  ocean. 

"  Ah,"  said  Mr.  George,  as  soon  as  they  en- 
tered upon  this  portion  of  the  road,  "  here  we 
come  to  one  of  the  great  sea  dikes.  How  glad  I 
am." 

"  So  am  I,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  wanted  to  see  one 
of  the  sea  dikes." 

"It  is  very  much  like  the  others,"  said  Mr. 
George,  "only  it  is  much  larger." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "and  see  how  it  winds 
about  along  the  shore." 


Conclusion.  201 


Ancient  trees  upon  the  dike.  The  wind  mills. 

In  looking  forward  in  the  direction  in  which 
Rollo  pointed,  the  dike  could  be  traced  for  a  long 
distance  in  its  course,  like  an  immense  railroad 
embankment,  winding  in  and  out  in  a  most  re- 
markable manner,  in  conformity  to  the  indenta- 
tions of  the  shore.  In  one  respect  it  differed 
from  a  railroad  embankment,  namely,  in  being 
bordered  and  overshadowed  by  avenues  of  im- 
mense trees,  which  showed  how  many  ages  ago 
the  dike  had  been  built.  There  is  not  a  railroad 
embankment  in  the  world  that  has  been  built 
long  enough  for  such  immense  trees  to  have  had 
time  to  grow. 

The  carriage  road  lay  along  the  top  of  the 
dike,  which  was  very  broad,  and  the  slopes  of  it, 
towards  the  water  on  one  side,  and  towards  the 
low  meadow  lands  on  the  other,  were  very  grad- 
ual. Men  were  at  work  every  where  along  these 
slopes,  cutting  the  second  crop  of  grass,  and  mak- 
ing it  into  hay.  Where  the  hay  was  ready  to  be 
got  in,  the  men  were  at  work  loading  it  into  boats 
that  lay  in  the  little  canals  that  extend  along  the 
sides  of  the  dike  at  the  foot  of  the  slopes. 

Wind  mills  were  to  be  seen  every  where,  all 
about  the  horizon.  As  the  road  approached 
Saandam,  these  mills  became  more  and  more  nu- 
merous. 

"  I  mean  to  see  if  I  can  count  them,"  said 
Rollo. 


202  Rollo   in  Holland. 

The  four  thousand  wind  mills.  Saandam. 

"  You  cannot  count  them,  I  am  sure,"  said  Mr, 
George. 

Rollo  began ;  but  when  he  got  up  to  a  hun- 
dred, he  gave  up  the  undertaking  in  despair. 
Mr.  George  told  him  that  he  read  in  the  guide 
book  that  there  were  four  thousand  wind  mills  in 
that  region. 

Some  of  these  wind  mills  were  very  small  in- 
deed ;  and  there  were  two  or  three  which  looked 
so  "  cunning,"  as  Rollo  said,  that  he  wished  very 
much  that  he  had  one  of  them  to  take  with  him 
to  America. 

The  use  of  these  very  small  wind  mills  was  to 
pump  up  the  water  from  some  very  limited  tract 
of  land,  which,  for  some  reason  or  other,  hap- 
pened to  lie  a  few  inches  lower  than  the  rest. 

At  last,  after  an  infinite  number  of  turnings  and 
windings,  by  means  of  which  every  part  of  the 
surrounding  country  was  brought  in  succession 
into  view  before  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  as  they 
sat  in  their  carriage,  they  arrived  at  the  town  of 
Saandam. 

The  town  consists  of  two  streets,  one  on  each 
embankment  of  a  great  canal.  The  streets  are 
closely  built  up  for  many  miles  along  the  canal, 
►but  the  town  does  not  extend  laterally  at  all,  on 
account  of  the  ground  falling  off  immediately  to 
very  low  polders. 


Conclusion.  205 

The  old  residence  of  Peter  the  Great  at  Saandam. 

After  entering  the  street  the  commissioner  left 
the  carriage,  in  order  that  the  horses  might  rest, 
and  led  Mr.  George  and  Hollo  on  a  walk  through 
the  prettiest  part  of  the  town.  They  walked 
about  half  a  mile  along  the  canal  on  one  side,  and 
then,  crossing  by  a  ferry,  they  came  back  on  the 
other  side. 

.  In  the  course  of  this  walk  they  went  to  see  the 
hut  where  Peter  the  Great  lived  while  he  was  in 
Holland  engaged  in  studying  ship  building  in 
the  ship  yards  of  Saandam.  The  hut  itself  was 
old  and  dilapidated  ;  but  it  was  covered  and  pro- 
tected by  a  good,  substantial  building  of  brick, 
with  open  arches  all  around,  which  allowed  the 
hut  to  be  seen,  while  the  roof  and  walls  of  the 
building  protected  it  from  the  rain.  The  hut  was 
situated  in  a  very  pretty  little  garden. 

There  were  two  rooms  in  the  hut,  and  one  of 
them  —  the  one  shown  in  the  engraving  —  had  a 
very  curious-looking  Dutch  fireplace  in  one  corner 
of  it,  and  a  ladder  to  go  up  to  the  loft  above. 
The  chairs  were  very  curious  indeed  ;  the  seats 
being  three-cornered,  and  the  back  and  arms  be- 
irg  constructed  in  a  very  singular  manner. 

The  walls  of  the  rooms  were  perfectly  covered, 
in  every  part,  with  the  names  of  visitors,  who  had 
come  from  all  countries  to  see  the  rooms.  Be- 
sides these,  there  were  a  great  many  volumes  of 


206  Rollo  in  Holland. 

The  register  of  visitors.  Driving  back  to  Amsterdam. 

hooks  filled  with  names.  These  books  lay  on  a 
great  table,  which  stood  at  one  side  of  the  room. 
There  was  one  of  the  books  which  was  not  yet 
full,  and  this  one  lay  open  on  the  table,  with  a 
pen  and  ink  near  it,  in  order  that  fresh  visitors, 
as  fast  as  they  came,  might  enter  their  names. 

After  looking  at  this  cabin  as  long  as  they 
wished,  and  entering  their  names  in  the  book,  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  left  the  hut  and  returned 
through  one  of  the  main  streets  of  the  town  to 
the  place  where  they  had  left  their  carriage. 
The  carriage  was  soon  ready  for  them,  and  they 
set  out  to  go  back  to  Amsterdam. 

They  had  a  delightful  drive  back,  going  as 
they  came,  on  the  top  of  the  great  sea  dike.  On 
one  side  they  could  look  off  over  a  wide  expanse 
of  water,  with  boats,  and  steamers,  and  ships 
moving  to  and  fro  in  every  direction  over  it. 
On  the  other  side  they  overlooked  a  still  wider 
expanse  of  low  and  level  green  fields,  intersected 
every  where  with  canals  of  water  and  avenues 
of  trees,  and  with  a  perfect  forest  of  wind  mills 
in  the  horizon. 

As  they  were  riding  quietly  along  upon  this 
dike  on  the  return  to  Amsterdam,  Rollo  had  the 
opporturity  of  imparting  to  Mr.  George  some 
valuable  information  in  respect  to  Peter  the 
Great. 


Conclusion.  207 


Kollo's  account  of  Peter  the  Great.  What  are  the  boyars. 

"  I  am  glad  that  I  have  had  an  opportunity  to 
Bee  the  workshop  of  Peter  the  Great,"  said  Mr. 
George.  "It  is  very  curious  indeed.  But  I  don't 
know  much  about  Peter  the  Great.  The  first 
opportunity  I  get  I  mean  to  read  an  account  of 
his  life,  and  I  advise  you  to  do  the  same." 

"I  have  read  about  him,"  said  Rollo.  " I  found 
a  book  about  him  in  a  steamboat  that  we  came 
in,  and  I  read  all  about  his  coming  to  Holland." 

"  Then  tell  me  about  it,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"Why,  you  see,"  said  Rollo,  "he  was  at  war 
with  the  Turks,  and  he  fought  them  and  drove 
them  off  to  the  southward,  until  at  last  he  came 
to  the  Sea  of  Asoph.  Then  he  could  not  fight 
them  any  more,  unless  he  could  get  some  ships. 
So  he  made  a  law  for  all  the  great  boyars  of  his 
kingdom,  that  every  one  of  them  must  build  or 
buy  him  a  ship.   What  are  boyars,  uncle  George  ?  " 

"  Nobles,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  I  thought  it  must  be  something  like  that," 
replied  Eollo. 

11  The  old  nobility  of  those  Russian  countries 
are  called  boyars,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "  but  I  don't 
know  why.  Most  of  the  common  people  are 
slaves  to  them." 

"  Well,  at  any  rate,"  said  Rollo,  "  he  made  a 
law  that  every  one  of  them,  or  at  least  all  that 
were  rich  enough,  should  build  or  buy  him  a  ship  ,• 


208  Rollo   in  Holland. 


Ship  building  in  Holland.  Education  of  the  young  nobles. 

but  they  did  not  know  how  to  build  ships  them- 
selves, and  so  they  were  obliged  to  send  to  Hol- 
land for  ship  builders.  They  built  more  and  bet- 
ter ships  in  Holland  in  those  days  than  in  any 
country  in  the  world." 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  so,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  The  boyars  did  not  like  it  very  well  to  be 
obliged  to  build  these  ships,"  continued  Rollo. 
"  And  there  was  another  thing  that  they  disliked 
still  more." 

"  What  was  that  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

"  Why,  the  emperor  made  them  send  off  their 
sons  to  be  educated  in  different  foreign  countries," 
replied  Rollo.  "  You  see,  in  those  days  Russia 
was  very  little  civilized,  and  Peter  concluded  that 
it  would  help  to  introduce  civilization  into  the 
country,  if  the  sons  of  the  principal  men  went  to 
other  great  cities  for  some  years,  to  study  sci- 
ences and  arts.  So  he  sent  some  of  them  to  Paris, 
and  some  to  Berlin,  and  some  to  Amsterdam,  and 
some  to  Rome.  But  most  of  them  did  not  like 
to  go." 

"  That's  strange,"  said  Mr.  George.  ■"  1  should 
have  thought  they  would  have  liked  to  go  very 
much." 

"At  least  their  fathers  did  not  like  to  send 
them,"  said  Rollo  ;  "  perhaps  on  account  of  the 
expense  ;  and  some  of  the  young  men  did   not 


Conclusion.  209 

The  loolish  young  boyar  in  Venice-  Peter's  great  journey. 

like  to  go.  There  was  one  that  was  sent  to 
Venice,  in  order  that  he  might  see  and  learn  every 
thing  that  he  could  there,  that  would  be  of  ad- 
vantage to  his  own  country  ;  but  he  was  so  cross 
about  it  that  when  he  got  to  Venice  he  shut  him- 
self up  in  his  house,  and  declared  that  he  would 
not  see  or  learn  any  thing  at  all." 

"He  was  a  very  foolish  fellow,  I  think,"  said 
Mr.  George. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  think  he  was.  But  I've 
seen  boys  in  school  act  just  so.  They  get  put 
out  with  the  teacher  for  something  or  other,  and 
then  they  won't  try  to  understand  the  lesson." 

"  That  is  punishing  themselves,  and  not  the 
teacher,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  But  go  on  about 
Peter." 

"  After  a  while,"  continued  Rollo,  "  Peter  con- 
cluded to  make  a  journey  himself.  His  plan  was 
to  go  to  all  the  most  civilized  countries,  and  into 
all  the  finest  cities  in  Europe,  and  see  what  he 
could  learn  that  would  be  of  use  in  his  own  do- 
minions. So  he  fitted  out  a  grand  expedition. 
He  took  a  number  of  ambassadors,  and  generals, 
and  great  potentates  of  all  kinds  with  him. 
These  men  were  dressed  in  splendid  uniforms,  and 
travelled  in  great  state,  and  had  grand  receptions 
in  all  the  great  towns  that  they  came  to.  But 
Peter  himself  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  He 
14 


210  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Contrast  between  the  emperor  and  his  grandees. 

dressed  plainly,  like  a  common  man,  so  that 
wherever  he  went  he  could  ramble  about  at  lib- 
erty, and  see  what  he  wanted  to  see  in  peace  and 
quietness,  while  all  the  people  were  running  after 
the  procession  of  ambassadors  and  grandees." 

"  That  was  a  good  plan,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  An  excellent  plan,"  rejoined  Rollo.  "  In  some 
of  the  seaports  that  he  visited,  he  used  to  put  on 
a  sort  of  a  pea  jacket,  such  a3  the  Dutch  skippers 
wore,  and  go  about  in  that,  along  the  wharves 
and  docks,  and  look  at  all  the  shipping. 

"  But  he  was  most  interested  in  going  to  Hol- 
land," continued  Rollo,  "  for  that  was  the  country 
where  they  built  the  best  ships.  Besides,  the  first 
vessel  that  he  ever  saw  happened  to  be  a  Dutch 
vessel.     I  forgot  to  tell  you  about  that." 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mr.  George,  "  tell  me  now." 

"  Why,  it  was  some  years  before  this  time,"  said 
Rollo,  —  "  two  or  three  I  believe,  —  that  he  first 
saw  a  vessel.  There  was  a  country  place  with  a 
handsome  house  and  pleasure  grounds,  belonging 
to  the  royal  family.  I  forget  what  the  name  of 
it  was.  But  that  is  no  matter.  One  time,  after 
Peter  came  to  the  throne,  he  went  out  to  this 
country  place  to  spend  a  few  days.  He  found  on 
the  grounds  a  sort  of  artificial  winding  canal  or 
pond,  with  pretty  trees  on  the  banks  of  it.  On 
this  canal  was  a  yacht,  which  had  been  built  in 


Conclusion.  211 

The  Dutch-built  yacht.  The  first  ship  buildiug  in  Russia. 

Holland  and  brought  there,  for  the  people  to  sail 
in  when  they  came  to  that  palace.  The  yacht 
had  not  been  used  much,  and  was  lying  neglected 
at  the  wharf.  But  Peter  immediately  had  it  put 
in  order,  and  took  a  sail  in  it,  and  he  liked  it 
very  much  indeed." 

"  Was  it  the  first  vessel  that  he  ever  saw  ?  " 
Asked  Mr.  George. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  believe  it  was  ;  or  at 
(east  it  was  the  first  that  he  ever  particularly  no- 
ticed. He  liked  sailing  in  it,  and  then,  besides, 
there  was  one  of  his  officers  there,  who  had  trav- 
elled in  other  countries  in  Europe  where  people 
had  ships  and  navies,  and  he  told  Peter  what 
great  advantages  they  gained  from  them,  not  only 
in  carrying  goods  from  place  to  place,  but  in 
transporting  armies,  and  fighting  their  enemies 
at  sea. 

"  Peter  thought  a  great  deal  about  this,  and 
when  he  went  back  to  Moscow,  which  was  then 
the  capital,  he  inquired  and  found  that  there  were 
some  people  from  Holland  there.  He  asked  them 
tf  they  knew  how  to  build  ships.  Some  of  them 
said  they  did.  Then  he  asked  them  if  they  could 
not  build  him  some  small  vessels,  just  like  the 
Dutch  ships  of  war.  They  said  they  could.  So 
he  made  a  bargain  with  them,  and  they  built  him 
several. 


212  Rollo   in  Holland. 

The  four  gun  frigates.  The  emperor's  model  fleet. 

"  Do  you  know  how  many  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

"Not  exactly,"  replied  Rollo.  "There  were 
several  small  vessels,  and  I  remember  that  there 
were  four  frigates,  and  each  frigate  had  four  guns. 
I  don't  suppose  the  guns  were  very  large." 

"  Four  guns  is  a  very  small  armament  for  a 
frigate,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Rollo,  "  very  small  indeed.  But 
you  see,  Peter  did  not  want  them  for  real  service, 
but  only  for  models,  as  it  were." 

"  And  what  did  he  do  with  them,  when  they 
were  done  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

"  They  were  launched  into  a  lake  there  was  in 
that  part  of  the  country,"  said  Rollo,  "  and  there 
the  emperor  used  to  sail  about  in  them,  and  have 
Bham  fights. 

"  But  all  this,  you  must  understand,"  continued 
Rollo,  "  took  place  two  or  three  years  before  Peter 
drove  the  Turks  off  from  the  southern  part  of  his 
empire,  so  as  to  get  to  the  sea.  And  it  was  not 
till  then  that  he  began  to  have  real  ships  built  of 
large  size.  And  now,  when  he  was  going  to  Hol- 
land, he  of  course  remembered  the  old  Dutch 
yacht  which  he  had  on  his  pleasure  grounds,  and 
the  small  frigates  which  they  had  built  him,  and 
the  large  ones  too,  which  they  had  built  for  the 
boyars,  and  he  felt  a  great  interest  in  going  to 
see  the  ship  yards.     He  determined  that  while  he 


Conclusion.  213 

Peter  the  Great  eludes  the  reception  at  Amsterdam. 

was  in  Holland  he  would  spend  as  much  time  as  he 
could  in  learning  all  about  ship  building. 

"  It  is  very  curious  about  the  emperor  and  his 
company's  entering  Amsterdam,"  continued  Rollo. 
"  When  the  government  there  heard  that  he  was 
coming,  they  made  grand  preparations  to  receive 
him.  They  got  the  cannon  all  ready  on  the  ram- 
parts to  fire  salutes,  and  drew  out  the  soldiers, 
and  all  the  doors  and  windows  were  crowded 
with  spectators.  They  prepared  a  great  number 
of  illuminations,  too,  and  fireworks,  for  the  night. 
But  just  before  the  party  arrived  at  Amsterdam, 
the  emperor  slipped  away  in  a  plain  dress,  and 
left  the  ambassadors,  and  generals,  and  grandees 
to  go  in  by  themselves.  The  people  of  Amster- 
dam did  not  know  this.  They  supposed  that 
some  one  or  other  of  the  people  dressed  so  splen- 
didly, in  the  procession,  was  Peter  ;  and  so  they 
shouted,  and  waved  their  flags  and  their  hand- 
kerchiefs, and  fired  the  cannon,  and  made  a  great 
parade  generally." 

"  And  Peter  himself  was  not  there  at  all  ?  " 
said  Mr.  George. 

"No,"  said  Rollo.  "He  slipped  away,  and 
came  in  privately  with  a  few  merchants  to  accom- 
pany him.  And  instead  of  going  to  the  great 
palace  which  the  government  of  Amsterdam  had 
provided  and  fitted  up  for  him,  he  left  that  to  his 


214  Rollo  in  Holland. 

Peter's  retreat.  His  ship  yards  at  Saandam. 

ambassadors,  and  went  himself  to  a  small  house, 
by  a  ship  yard,  where  he  could  be  at  liberty,  and 
go  and  come  when  he  pleased." 

"  And  afterwards,  I  suppose  he  went  to  Saan- 
dam," said  Mr.  George. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  replied  Rollo.  "  Saandam  was  a 
great  place  for  building  ships  in  those  days. 
They  say  that  while  he  was  there,  he  went  to  work 
regularly,  like  a  ship  carpenter,  as  if  he  wished 
to  learn  the  trade  himself.  But  I  don't  believe 
he  worked  a  great  deal." 

"  No,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  I  presume  he  did 
not.  He  probably  took  the  character  and  dress 
3f  a  workman  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  making 
himself  more  at  home  in  the  ship  yards  and  about 
the  wharves.  Indeed,  I  can't  see  what  useful  end 
could  be  gained  by  his  learning  to  do  work  him- 
self. He  could  not  expect  to  build  ships  himself 
when  he  should  return  to  Russia." 

"  No,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  expect  he  wanted  to 
see  exactly  how  the  ships  were  built,  and  how  the 
yards  were  managed,  and  he  thought  he  could  do 
this  better  if  he  went  among  the  workmen  as  one 
of  their  number." 

"  I  presume  so,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  I  am  very 
glad  you  found  the  book,  and  I  am  much  obliged 
to  you  for  all  this  information." 


Conclusion.  215 

The  end  of  the  journey.  Entertainments  in  Amsterdam. 

Soon  after  this  Mr.  George  and  Hollo  arrived 
safely  at  Amsterdam. 

Hollo  and  Mr.  George  remained,  after  this, 
some  days  in  Amsterdam  :  and  they  were  very 
much  entertained  with  what  they  saw  there  in 
the  streets,  and  with  the  curious  manners  and 
customs  of  the  people. 


